Panther
by RosenDragon
Summary: Rescuing the new mutant girl is tougher than they thought. It turns out Kurt is the only one that can stop her. She's more powerful than any of them imagined. So what happens when they take her back to the mansion where she's safe? What happens when Kurt falls for her? Will she let it work?
1. Chapter 1: Panther

**I do not own the X-men characters. I own Panther and the events of the story. That is all.**

Their mission was simple: break in, cuff the sick bastard, and bring the new mutant back to the mansion. Easy peasy.

Professor Xavier himself had chosen to go on this mission. Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Rogue were who he'd chosen to take with him. The Professor knew this one would be a handful.

The place was easy enough to get into. Logan sliced through the locks and the rest of the entourage, (Nightcrawler and Rogue), stormed in. Five men stood around a bed. Kurt's sensitive ears had picked up on their conversation.

"Isn't it uncomfortable like that?'

"Nope, I saw it lying like that, that's why I restrained it that way."

Kurt didn't catch anything else before they stormed in. Rogue went straight for the bastard, glove off and forcing contact. As she drained his consciousness, skimming through his disgusting memories, Kurt and Logan each took down two of his buddies. Xavier wheeled into the room.

"I've already informed the police. If you would be so kind as to bind them together and leave them over there, Logan." He nodded and set to work.

"Do ya need me for anythin' else Professor?" Rogue asked looking pale.

"No, why don't you head back to the jet and rest?" Rogue nodded and returned to the jet.

"Vhat about me Professor?" Kurt asked.

"I thought perhaps you would be so kind as to release out new friend?"

For the first time since they entered the building, Kurt's eyes landed upon the new mutant they were there to rescue. She was lying on her left side, right arm restrained with a leather cuff behind and above her head. Her other hand was bound to her right ankle, leaving her curled. Her left leg was left free. This position brought all the attention to her butt. Protruding from the base of her spine was a spaded tail that poured over her hip and was tied to her unrestrained leg. Upon her head she had cat-like ears, the short hair matching the midnight black hair flowing from her scalp. It was a short and uneven mop. She donned a simple thigh-length black nightgown and panties (which were visible due to the position she had been restrained in).

"Of course," Kurt replied, instantly feeling attached to the girl and pitying her as he pitied himself.

By this time Logan was finished tying up the men. Xavier was about to tell him he could return to the jet too, but Logan growled,

"I'm stayin' Charles; someone needs to watch over the elf." Professor nodded with a smile.

Kurt had approached the girl. She seemed to be sleeping. He untied her tail first, understanding how sensitive tails could be. Instantly, her eyes shot open and she fought against her restraints, hissing and lashing out with her freed tail. The tip caught Kurt's bicep and left an incision. Kurt hissed back at her, stepping back in surprise. He was just trying to help her.

Determined to see through his task, he deftly unbound the hand and ankle that were pinned together. She lashed out more, but this time missed Kurt. The girl turned slightly, so that she was on her back, and began clawing at the last restraint. Thanks to her mutant abilities, her sharp nails elongated and strengthened. The result was not what she was aiming for. The restraint stayed in place. She managed some damage to it, but mostly scratched up her own hand and wrist.

Kurt yanked her hand away and Logan, who had noticed Kurt's need for assistance, restrained her tail and legs. Professor Xavier took ahold of the girl's free hand with his telekinesis, freeing Kurt to undo the last restraint.

As soon as he did, her injured clawed hand came down on his, leaving a line of claw marks. Kurt withdrew. She sat up and clawed at Logan's face. Angrily injured, Logan released her and backed up. When he tried to retaliate, Professor Xavier stopped him.

The girl sat with her feet together, a hand pressed to the bed within the gap her legs made, licking at her injured wrist. The three x-men stood there watching her. Kurt approached her again. She hissed backing up and curling up on the pillow on the other end. She went back to licking her injury. He took a couple steps closer and she inched away. He reached out his tail to her, hoping she would at least register that.

She did. She eyed him with interest. While distracted, Professor Xavier tried to enter her mind. She turned and glared at him, her eyes glowing a brilliant purple.

'Do you understand English?'

'I suggest, if you do not wish for me to fry your brain into little itty pieces, you remove yourself from my brain.'

'We're here to help you...' he was cut off with a sharp pain slicing through his head. Visions of orange and yellow flames developed. He quickly withdrew from her brain. The pain faded. Her eyes stopped glowing.

"Charles, what the hell just happened?"

"Her mind is much stronger than mine, or at least much more defensive. My abilities may prove to be useless with this one."

"Much..." Logan looked at the girl and then back at the Professor. "Than yours?" he spit out. The news stunned him. The Professor nodded.

Kurt, meanwhile, had taken ahold of her tail with his. When she snapped out of her scenario with the Professor, she shut her eyes. Nails digging into the pillow her chest and hip were on, she pulled Kurt's tail. He hissed at her, pulling on her tail. She yowled and whimpered.

"Sehen, it does nicht feel gut," Kurt told her. The yowl brought Logan and Xavier's attention back to her. Xavier entered her mind for a moment, catching a glimpse of something (he wasn't sure what), before the flames began to burn again. 'So she periodically does that too,' he thought. Professor Xavier linked Logan's and Kurt's minds to his own so that they could have a conversation without letting her know.

She pulled Kurt's tail again, watching, as his fangs became visible. The Professor tried her mind again right as Kurt returned the yank. Her mind registered the sting and flickered to images of his fangs. Then her brain sealed itself off again and she yanked on Kurt's tail. When his mouth opened to cry out, her eyes fixated on his fangs again. Kurt yanked back just as hard. She cried out, eyes shut and watering. Images of the fangs she'd see were swirling around with fantasy-created images of those fangs sinking into her neck. The Professor withdrew from her mind as the fire started again.

'Hey Charles,' Logan thought.

'Yes Logan?'

'She's emitting some pretty strong pheromones.'

'Kurt.'

'I know Professor, I can smell them too.'

'She wants to be bitten,' Xavier continued. 'She seems to be acting a bit like a cat, so it's only fair that we consider the cat's habits as hers unless proven otherwise. She seems to be focusing on your fangs when you open your mouth to hiss at her. Female cats are forced into submission through a bite to the neck. Maybe if you bite her, she'll calm down enough to be talked to.'

'You vont me to bite her.'

'Yes.'

'Okay, but I need to concentrate. There's no vay she's just going to let me.'

Xavier disconnected the link from Kurt.

'Are you sure this is a good idea Charles?'

'It seems to be the only option at this point if we to do not want to make an enemy out of her.'

'I hope so.'

Kurt unlatched his tail from hers, quickly wrapping them around her legs instead. He pulled her down the bed, so that she was laying on it, face down. She lashed out at him with her tail, catching his cheek, and tried to turn to claw at him. He acted fast: pinning her wrists to the pillow under her head, pinning her body and legs down with his own, and restraining her tail with his. She struggled beneath him, hissing at him. Her claws sunk into the pillow. While her head was off the pillow amidst her struggles, Kurt wasted no time and sunk his fangs into the left side of her neck. (Logan and Xavier are standing off to the right side.)

'We just handed the elf a mate, didn't we?'

'I believe so,' Xavier responded, 'but is that such a bad thing?'

'Lord knows the kid needed one.'

'I think it will benefit him too,' Xavier agreed through the mental link.

The girl cried out, freezing her movements. She lowered her head onto the pillow slowly and froze there for a minute. Her claws retracted and her eyes closed. The longer her bit her, the less rebellious she felt.

When Kurt felt her relax completely, he removed his mouth from her neck. She moaned softly: so softly only Kurt's ears picked up on it. He licked at the bite mark on her neck, both apologetically and possessively. His instincts had kicked in. He had bit her. She belonged to him. They both knew it. Kurt wrapped his arms around her waist as he rolled off her, pulling her back against him. They curled up together. She fell asleep.

Kurt teleported the two of them to the bed he was currently using as his own aboard the x-jet. He pulled the covers over the two of them and joined her in slumber.

Logan and the Professor returned to the jet, instructing Ororo, who had waited behind, to get the jet set off towards home.

Kurt and the girl slept the whole way to the mansion.

Xavier explained to Ororo what had happened.

Logan refused to say anything about it (or his facial wound) to Rogue except: "I think the elf's found a mate."

Rogue promised not to tell anyone he said that and secretly was amused that this new girl had injured Logan. For she knew the girl did, even if Logan didn't admit it.

**Comment if you like it. =**)


	2. Chapter 2: A Step Forward

Kurt was awoken the next morning with a loud thud: the sound of him being pushed off the bed. He peered over the edge of the bed at the girl they had rescued the night before. She was curled up on his pillow as she had been at the place. Kurt realized getting her to open up was going to be a long process. In fact, he didn't even know her name yet.

He sat on the edge of the bed to get off the floor, but to keep a distance so as to not frighten her.

"My name is Kurt Wagner. I'm one of the x-men: Nightcrawler. Sehen: blue fur. Fuzzy Dude." He grinned. The girl continued to stare emotionless-ly at him. "We are at the Institute for Gifted students. Professor Xavier's way of making a mansion, home to dozens of mutants, sound normal. Professor says you're one of us, which is true. Look at your tail and ears.

Kurt was babbling, but he didn't care. It might make her open up a little if he talked to her. Might calm her down too if she knew more about what was going on.

There was a silence as Kurt thought what to say. He didn't have long to think however, because there was a knock on the door.

"Ja?" he called. Jean opened the door.

"Kurt, the Professor said to go see him. He said you could go. I'll watch her."

Kurt nodded. Jean eyed the girl on the bed.

"So you'll go see him."

"Be careful." Kurt left Jean alone with the new girl. Somehow he knew: this was a bad idea

Professor Xavier was waiting at his desk when Kurt arrived.

"Have a seat Kurt." Kurt sat.

"What's going on Professor?"

"The new girl we brought here. Is she awake?"

"Yes, sir."

"Has she spoken?"

"No, sir. But, I've talked to her a little."

"Does she seem to be warming up to you?"

"Nicht."

"I thought not. Kurt, you understand that that girl, potentially, contains more talent and power at her age than every mental-associated mutant ability that we know of?"

"She's strong with her gift. If that's what you mean."

"Precisely. Which means, he being so distant and uncontrollable, only means, she's dangerous. We must keep an eye on her. If she turns on us, we might not be able to stop her."

"Um... Professor? If she's that talented as you say: why didn't she free herself?"

"Unfortunately Kurt, that is something only she can answer."

Jean eyed the girl cautiously, just as the girl eyed her. The Professor had said to be careful, and so had Kurt. Super careful. That this girl was capable of things that surpassed even the Professor's mind.

Jean leaned against the wall. She wasn't going to try and pry into this girl's brain. She was curious, but the Professor had warned her strongly against using her gift.

As she continued to watch the girl, she suddenly felt a pressure in the back of her mind. Most people wouldn't notice a thing, but since Jean's gift was telepathy, she could sense when another tried to get into her brain. The Professor hadn't said anything about the girl inside her head. She pulled up barrier after barrier, but the girl kept tearing them down; her eyes shut in concentration.

'Professor!' Jean sent a panicked message telepathically.

The Professor suddenly started, wincing from Jean's mental panic.

"Kurt. Jean's having a problem. Go quickly!"

Kurt teleported, leaving a sulfur smell behind, and disappearing in front of the Professor's eyes.

Jean was so focused on blocking the girl out; she didn't notice Kurt's entrance. Kurt had appeared behind the girl. He reached out to grab her and sink his teeth into her neck.

The girl was faster though; she jumped off the bed, pulling out of Jean's mind.

The pressure gone, Jean began to relax and open her eyes.

Kurt thought the girl looked so vulnerable standing there looking at him, with her knees turned inward and her hands clutching the neckline of her nightgown. He violet eyes were burning into his. He let his eyes stray, taking in the way her ears flattened against her head and he tail curled around her leg so tightly the sharp edge was digging into her shin.

Jean looked at the girl and Kurt. They seemed to be frozen where they were. Wondering if perhaps the girl had entered his mind, Jean invaded Kurt's; something she swore she wouldn't do. Never invade her friends' privacy.

'Kurt?'

'Jean I'm fine. Go. Ichkann behandeln her.'

'But Kurt! The Professor...'

'Sent me back because _I can handle her_.'

'Alright, but, you missed breakfast.'

Jean left his mind. She had nothing else to say. She knew Kurt must be hungry and he hadn't eaten since before the mission last night. How much of his teleportation and energy could he have on an empty stomach?

Jean left. Thank gott, Kurt thought. But she was right. He hadn't eaten in a while; he probably didn't have enough energy left to handle her. He could feel his energy draining as time passed.

Kurt moved closer to the girl. He didn't feel the pressure in his head as Jean had, but after a little while he felt her presence. She was going through his thoughts. He sat on the edge of the bed and looked at her. Mentally, he encouraged her to explore his mind. Sure he had things to hid, but if opening up his mind is what she wanted to do... well he couldn't stop her. So, it would be easier to let her.

'It's okay,' he told her mentally. 'Look if you want to. I'll sit right here. Promise.'

The girl closed her eyes and pushed farther into his mind. The further she pushed the further back in time the memories were.

_Kurt saw the girl lying on the bed, tied up, and helpless. His feeling immediately switched to pity and an attachment because he remembered how awful people had treated him before he moved to Xavier's. They had been excessively harsh towards him and it appeared this girl had been treated no better._

The girl continued back through his memories. As far back as he could remember. All his thoughts and past feelings lay before her like a story book she couldn't put down.

Mistique's death.

Finding out Rogue was his adopted sister.

The issues between Kitty and Lance that never quite went away.

The Professor's inducer that allowed him to go to school.

Meeting his fellow mutant's at the mansion. The Professor. Logan. Hank. Ororo. Scott. Jean. Rogue. Kitty. Amara. Bobby. Evan. And many others. Kitty's repulsed response at first. And then how they became friends.

The people in his hometown chasing him with torches and yelling that he was a demon that needed to die.

At this the girl withdrew quickly from his mind. He winced in pain and rubbed his temples. Had she seen what she wanted to see?

The girl sat on the floor and looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Did you see vhat you vonted to see?"

She didn't reply at all. He slid off the bed and sat on the floor. He held out his tail to her.

"Can ve be friends now? Can you trust me now?"

She glanced at his tail and then back at his eyes. He waited to see if she would take his tail, if she would trust him.

His stomach gurgled. He grinned sheepishly and stood up.

"Ve can hold off on you trusting me long enough to go eat breakfast can't ve?" He offered his hand to help her stand up. She didn't take his hand, but stood up quietly.

"I take it this means ja let's go get breakfast?"

She nodded slowly once.

He grinned. He snatched her hand and teleported them down to the kitchen before she could pull her hand away.


	3. Chapter 3: So You Are

The girl sat on the kitchen counter, her eyes flickering between the door and Kurt. Kurt on the other hand, didn't look up at her. He efficiently whipped up a batch of pancakes and cooked them until they were golden brown.

Breakfast now laid out before them, Kurt dug in. Piling half of the stack of pancakes onto his plate and coating them in butter and syrup. The girl took a couple pancakes and ate them slowly, watching Kurt scarf down his large portion.

When Kurt finished his food, he looked up to see the girl staring at him. He didn't feel any pressure in his brain, so he knew she wasn't prying. So why was she staring?

She piled the rest of the pancakes onto his plate with her mind.

He blinked. "Do you use your mind for everything?"

As a response she threw the bottle of syrup at him telepathically.

"I'll take that as a yes."

He continued to eat at his food, watching her, watch him. Placing his silverware down on the plate he asked,

"Is there something wrong?"

She put the dishes in the sink.

"You really should stop using your mind for everything. You'll just get lazy und out of shape, not to mention exhaust yourself."

She ignored him and hugged her knees.

After a moment of silence, Kurt couldn't take it.

"Alright, there has to be a reason you don't talk at all."

She ignored him.

"Vill you at least tell me your name so I do not have to call you mädel all the time?"

'Emery.'

Kurt's eyes widened at the melodic voice inside his head.

He smiled.

"Emery."

She glared at him.

"Vhat you don't vont me saying you're name?"

'No.'

"Vhy not?" Kurt grinned.

'Because that implies I trust you, and I do not trust anyone.'

"But you told me your name. Doesn't that mean you already trust me?" Kurt's grin remained intact.

'Stop smiling.'

"Aw but I'm happy."

'Why?'

"Because you're telepathically talking to me."

Emery sat there completely silent.

"So you're going to stop now that I pointed that out?"

Emery didn't respond.

Kurt got up to do the dishes, turning his back to Emery. He continues to talk to her to get her to respond again.

"You know you don't have to be so secretive around here. I'm sure once you open up everyone vill accept you for you. They accepted me after all und I look like un daemon."

Emery still didn't respond. Kurt finished up the dishes and put them away, only to turn around and find Emery gone.

"Dis can't be gutt," he mumbled.


	4. Chapter 4: Dangerous

On his way out the door Kurt heard a loud crash. He rushed towards the noise.

"Someone! Help me! She's fucking crazy!" Bobby pleaded.

Kurt froze for a minute. The doors to the living room were sealed off with a swirling black and purple plasma substance.

Bobby screamed. Kurt could only assume Emery was prying into his mind. He shut his eyes and teleported into the room. Bobby's scream echoed louder once Kurt's ears popped from teleporting. The walls were covered in the plasma and Bobby was enveloped in the plasma goo up to his chin. Emery was standing in the middle of the room, her eyes glowing bright purple and a frown upon her face.

"Emery!" Kurt shouted.

Her eyes flashed and she turned her head to look right at him.

"Emery calm down."

Her eyes flashed a bright purple and instantly Kurt was flung against the wall, into the sticky goo.

"Ulgh…goo"

Kurt teleported out of the goo and brushed off a bit that was left. He teleported a second time, directly behind Emery. He leaned in carefully and bit her neck. She squeaked and closed her eyes. Kurt wrapped his arms around her and sunk to the floor, holding her close. The plasma slid from the walls, pooling on the floor.

"Freak," Bobby muttered, fleeing the room.

Emery tensed at the word. She struggled to attack Bobby.

"No. No no." Kurt returned to sinking his teeth into her neck. Emery whimpered quietly. Sucking gently where his mouth was connected, Kurt assured her that everything was alright.

"I see we've had a bit of a problem in here," Professor Xavier said entering the room.

Kurt glanced up at the professor.

"When she calms down, she has cleaning duty. Must clean the mess you make in this house. Then Logan would like her in the training room."

Kurt stopped biting Emery.

"Go on, clean it up," he prodded softly.

Emery looked at him for a minute, and then waved her hand at the goo. It disappeared instantly as a brilliant flash of purple light.

"How did you do that?" Kurt asked.

'Twisting energy into plasma and back into energy is the same concept.'

"Still not using your voice I see," Kurt picked.

'No.'

Kurt stood up. "Vell, come on. You have training to do."

'I don't need training.'

"Go anyvay. Use it as practice," Kurt said, dragging her down to the training room where Wolverine waited patiently to push Emery's limits.


	5. Chapter 5: Emery's Temperament

"Alright, first we'll start with a simple task. I'll throw the disks into the air, you destroy them. Simple enough?"

Emery was silent.

"Are you listening to me?" Wolverine growled.

Emery's eyes flashed purple.

"Herr Logan, please just start the training," Kurt suggested.

Logan grumbled but started to throw the disks. Emery's eyes flashed their bright purple light once for every disk. Each disk fell to the floor sliced in two. She hadn't moved a muscle.

"Good. Now let's see how you do at hand to hand combat," Logan said before charging at her. Her eyes lit up purple. Logan ran straight into an invisible box, which lit up the same pretty purple as Emery's eyes on contact before fading invisible again.

"Hand to hand combat squirt. That means no powers."

Emery turned around and walked away from him. When he tried to prevent her from leaving, she poked her way into his brain. Logan was overcome with the violent sound of a train screeching to a halt as he sunk to his knees in pain.

Emery continued to walk away. She didn't need to do hand to hand combat when she could cause a person to collapse within seconds.

"Emery!" Kurt called, catching up with her in the hallway. She broke her contact with Wolverine. "That vasn't nice!"

Emery kept walking. She didn't care what was nice or mean. She didn't care what was right or wrong. She only cared about what she needed to do to maintain her state of mind and survive.

"Emery, vould you stop valking for ein minute!"

Emery twisted the energy around Kurt's get into plasmic goo. Kurt fell over, his feet stuck to the floor. By the time he looked back up from the floor, Emery had disappeared.

"Verdammt," Kurt swore. He scraped the goo off his feet and teleported to Emery's room, hoping against odds that she would be both there and a little more open to listening to what he had to say. He was being held responsible for her. He had to explain that she shouldn't attack the good guys. She couldn't attack Herr Logan especially. He was their teacher.

He felt in his heart that she belonged to him as well. He could tell she was pissed off and knew there was no one else that could calm her down but him. So, he needed to find her and figure out how he was going to calm her down this time. At least long enough for her to listen to his mini lecture.

**I apologize for the short chapter. It just seemed to want to end there, so I let it.**


	6. Chapter 6: Mates

He lucked out. He found her lying on her bed, the room swirling with purple antimatter particles.

"Emery?"

'Get. Out.'

He found himself against the wall with the door to her bedroom slammed in his face. He shook his head. What was he going to do with her? The Professor had told him that she was his responsibility and verdammt he was going to take that seriously. He teleported back into her room, this time on her bed. Swiftly, before she had time to react, he bit into her neck. The room stopped spiraling with antimatter, and the tension in the room seemed to disappear.

Emery probed into his mind.

'Why must you do that?' she said faintly.

'It calms you down,' he responded mentally. 'You don't listen wenn you're all vorked up.'

Kurt wrapped his arms around Emery. She allowed him envelope her and the two of them curled up together on her bed. After a few minutes, when he was sure she'd calmed down Kurt released his jaw. He licked at the bite mark he'd left there.

"Good now?"

She nodded.

"You shouldn't attack people like that. Ve are x-men, ve fight to protect people, even if they hate us for being mutants."

'I don't want to protect people.'

'Und vhat do you vont?"

Emery didn't answer him.

After a few moments of silence,

"Do you... vont me?" Kurt asked gently. He was promptly pushed off the bed.

He peered over the side of the bed. Emery was curled comfortably on top of the blankets with her tail snaked around one of her legs and her cat-like ears lying flat on her head. She was adorable. Kurt cautiously reached his hand out to pet her. When she didn't attack him, he rubbed the base of her ears. Instantly, she began to purr.

Kurt smiled. Emery was tough. She was strong-willed, strong-minded, and tough to please. He loved that he could make her relax, that she trusted him enough for that.

Kurt crawled back onto the bed and pulled her close. He kissed at her neck, vividly remembering the time when he first bit her. It felt like he was claiming her, and he thought, that he had. He thought she belonged to him. He had felt this way since. Then he remembered: Emery's mutation was one of a cat. She likely functioned as such. When cats mate, they bite as a claiming feature, even though they don't stay with the same mate in most cases. That's alright; he was going to mention it anyway. He wanted her to want to be with him.

"Emery, you know that bite wenn ve first met, that was a mate-claiming bite. That means if you vont me to be your mate, I will be."

He nuzzled his face into her neck and waited for her to respond to him.


	7. Chapter 7: Plasma?

Emery heard what he said. What was he talking about? Emery didn't need anyone, especially a mate.

Her mind began to wonder. Mental voices starting with Kurt and reaching farther and farther from the room seeped into her brain. Jean, Scott, Bobby, Logan, The Professor, Kitty, Ororo, Spike, Imara, Rogue, Beast, and many more all chattered inside her brain. She tried pushing Kurt away from her. She needed space to think. She needed to get out of there. Run away. She couldn't move. Kurt's arms held her firmly in place. Let go. Let go. Let me go. Let go. Too much. So many. Leave. Go. Disappear. Her mind cycled frantically.

The noise inside her brain was gone. What happened? Emery opened her eyes.

'Kurt,' she called mentally to the boy who was still wrapped around her. 'Kurt?' He didn't respond.

"Emery, where are we?" Kurt asked.

'I don't know.'

"Emery, come on. Where are we?"

'I said I don't know.'

"This isn't funny Emery," Kurt said standing up and looking around. The ground was a barren dark purple. Purple lava seemingly made from plasma seemed to be bubbling and running along the ground at various points.

'I don't know where we are,' she said mentally again.

Kurt turned to her. "Now ist nicht der time zu stop talking zu me!"

Emery smiled mentally. Okay, so she kind of liked his accent. This wasn't the time to be smiling though. If he couldn't hear her, maybe she could hear him. She tried tapping into his mind. There was nothing but silence.

"Kurt," Emery said out loud. "I can't communicate with my mind."

He froze. Emery spoke. Emery had spoken, verbally. He stared at her. Wait… she couldn't communicate? She couldn't use her mind at all? Her mind definitely brought her here. If she couldn't use her mind at all… could they get back?

"You brought us here. Can you bring us back?"

Emery tried and shook her head. "I can't use my mind at all, and I have no idea where we are."

Kurt took her hand. "Ve should look around; see if we can find un vay out of here."

Emery nodded her head in confirmation.

As they searched around this barren land, a shadow slipped around the plasmic lava flows, gliding gracefully behind them. Neither one of them noticed its presence, nor the sinister way it followed them.

They discovered that while Emery held no power here, Kurt still had his power of teleportation. However, it didn't matter how hard he tried, he couldn't teleport back to the mansion, or anywhere else on earth.

"What is this non-sense?" Emery asked, squatting down to poke at the purple plasma-like goo.

"Don't touch that!" Kurt pulled her away.

"Why not?"

"Do you normally touch things that could harm you?"

"How do I know it will harm me unless I touch it? Besides it looks like the plasma that I work with, that's not harmful at all. Well, unless you eat it.

Kurt stared in horror as she stuck her finger into the foo. When nothing happened, she continued to push her hand even deeper into the said "lava". It began to glow.

"Emery I don't think…"

He had been about to tell her that wasn't such a good idea when the goo started to pull her into itself.

"Kurt, she said nervously. "I can't get out."

"Sehen es war nicht un gud idea."

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back, trying to get her out of the goop without having to touch it himself. It did no good, the sludge continued to pull her in. Slowly, like quicksand, it absorbed the two of them, leaving them in perpetual darkness only penetrated by the purple plasmic glow that composed the substance.


	8. Chapter 8: Emotional

Feelings of fear and panic suddenly struck Kurt, but he knew these weren't his own. Emery had to be projecting her emotions like she projected her voice into his head. Wait a minute; if she could do that, then perhaps she could use her powers.

'Emery, Emery can you hear me?' Kurt directed his thoughts towards her.

'Kurt? You're in my brain?'

'No, I'm in mine. You've got your powers back.'

'How come we're not drowning or something?'

'I'm not sure. But it seems as if we don't need to breathe inside this plasma.'

'Plasma… plasma… Oh! Kurt! We're probably in another dimension.'

'Thank you for the obvious answer Em, but how does this help us?'

'One: don't call me Em, we're not that close. And two: that means the rules are different for my powers.'

'The only closer we can get from here is sex Em.'

'Don't call me Em!'

'Why not Em?'

Now he was getting on her nerves. Her eyes began glowing purple. While Kurt's eyes were shut to keep the goop out of them, he sensed that her eyes were glowing. That's right: antagonize her. Get her powers amped. Maybe she would get them out of this dimension.

'Shut up.'

He wrapped around her.

'Would you be reacting the same way if we had had sex already Em?'

The plasma around them began to shift.

'I bet you wouldn't, Em.'

The plasma began to bubble.

'Silence means you don't vont to answer because you know I'm right.'

Everything around them began to glow.

'What's the matter Em, upset because I understand you? You know, I can feel all of your emotions right now; you're projecting them at me involuntarily. They prove me right. You do want me to be your mate. You do want me to prove it, to claim you sexually. You do want me to call you Em, but you're upset because the last person that called you Em left you. They abandoned you.'

'Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!'

'There's no point in shutting up when I'm only speaking the truth. Just because you don't want to hear it doesn't mean I shouldn't say it.'

'Go away! Go! Just shut up! Go away!'

She was panicking, just like she had before.

'Run away home madel Em.'

That was the last straw. Her brain snapped. Instantly the portal between the two dimensions opened up and tossed the two of them onto Emery's bed like they had never left. What they failed to notice, again, was the shadow. It followed them through the portal, and once the portal was sealed, it slunk out of the window and out into the world.

Emery was still in a panic. This time, to calm her down, Kurt decided to try something different. He carefully pinned her beneath him, which wasn't hard considering she was just lying there with her eyes clenched shut. He turned her face towards him with one hand, and ever so gently placed a kiss upon her lips.


	9. Chapter 9: Nomenexposure

Her eyes flickered open for a moment, a way to assure herself that it was in fact Kurt that had kissed her. Then, her eyelids slid closed and she kissed him back. Without realizing it, she had calmed down.

Unfortunately for them, the amount of time they had actually spent in the other dimension was only about three minutes, and three minutes happened to be Professor Xavier's response time to a crisis within the house. He wheeled himself into the room, followed by Jean, Scott, Beast, Wolverine, and Rogue. All of whom had responded to Emery's mental panic wave.

"It ain't look like she's in any trouble," Rogue said in her southern accent.

Kurt jumped off the bed and stared at his feet, a blush spreading to his cheeks. Of course he would be the one to get caught in the middle of kissing the girl he liked. He did like her, he admitted to himself. He liked her a hölle of a lot.

"Would you care to explain what just happened here?" Professor X asked.

"Vell, she um… freaked out."

"Yes, and her 'freak out' pulled at the minds of everyone in the mansion."

"We got pulled into another dimension," Kurt said. "At least, I think that's vhat happened."

"Would you let me see?" Professor Xavier asked curiously.

"Naturlich."

The Professor probed gently into Kurt's mind watching and feeling what Kurt had seen and felt in the last three minutes. Or rather, the last several hours in the other dimension.

"I see," he said withdrawing. "So our new friend here is capable of inter-dimension travel even if she is not able to control it. What did you say her name was?"

"Emery."

Emery was glaring at Kurt by now.

'I told you not to tell them! Now they all know!'

Kurt winced.

"What's wrong fuzzy?" Rogue asked.

"She's mad."

"Why?"

"Because you all know her name now."

"She'll get over it," Rogue responded. "No one here is her enemy. She doesn't need to worry."

There was a gust of energy and several of the x-men that had come to help were ushered out of the room. Professor X and Wolverine were all that were left.

"Emery it's alright. We're not here to hurt you. We swear; we're your allies as you are ours. If you are betrayed by anyone, then I will not stop you from leaving or unleashing your anger on the person that hurt you. I don't think I could if I tried. Please, let me help you with your powers. They're obviously growing stronger, and I think you could use a friend that understands what a mental power is like."

Emery watched the Professor talk with her tail and her arms curled around her legs, her ears lying flat on the top of her head.

She looks so vulnerable, Kurt thought. He just wanted to wrap his arms around her and hold her.

'Swear it.'

"What do you want me to swear?" the Professor asked seriously.

'That you're not going to hurt me.'

"I swear the x-men, including myself, will not harm you. If we can help it, we won't even let harm come to you."

After a moment of silence between the two, she mentally voiced:

'I believe you.'


	10. Chapter 10: Schedule

Everyone in the danger room control panel winced. They were watching Professor X guide Emery through some difficult mental tests. She had breezed through the easy and intermediate ones, so the Professor had agreed to move her up to advanced studies sooner. Currently, he was trying to get her to levitate something the weight of a submarine. It was twice as heavy as her last lift, which had proven easy for her. Now, he was trying to push her past her limits.

Her mental screaming was painful for all of them.

"Control your mind Emery. You need to shut off your mind to us. Your screams of frustration are painful to your allies. You need to channel your mind so that it only affects what you want it to affect."

The weight she had lifted a few inches off the ground, suddenly dropped, shaking the mansion.

'I don't know how,' she shot at Professor Xavier as she spun to face him.

"Hm," the Professor said slipping into thought. Emery had already gotten used to the way the Professor was. When she saw his thoughtful expression, she sighed in exasperation and stormed out of the danger room.

He was plotting something. That old guy was plotting something, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to know. Kurt snatched her arm.

"Em," he started.

'I told you not to call me that.'

"But I will."

'What is it Kurt?'

"Come here," he pulled her gently into his arms. She wrapped her arms around him. "You're doing really vell."

'Shut up.'

"Vhat? You don't want a compliment?"

'I want to destroy something.'

"Vell… come outside to the training field with me. We can destroy something out there, and blame it on practice."

He donned his goofy grin. Emery couldn't stop a smile from forming on her face; Kurt's was contagious.

'Alright.' She slid her hand into his. 'Lead the way.'

The training field was set up with a net at one end. There were red rims around the holes that had been cut for target practice. A huge bin of dodge balls was at their end of the field. The carefully drawn chalk line a foot in front of them indicated that they were expected to throw the balls into the targets from over a hundred feet away: nearly impossible for about 99% of humans. Then again, they were mutants, albeit origins, they were a species above humans on the food chain. That only meant more was expected of them.

Kurt picked up a dodge ball and chucked it at the net. It flew easily into one of the pockets. He had done this for hours when he was bored and alone. He had gotten used to it.

Emery picked up one as well. It burst into pieces between her hands.

"Feel better?"

'A little bit.'

Kurt smiled. "Now try getting the ball into the hole like I did."

She picked up another ball. It zipped across the little field and landed expertly into the pocket.

"Now try without your powers."

'That's impossible.'

"I just did it." He threw another one into one of the holes. "Twice. Und with no powers."

She picked up another one. Well, he did have a point. It didn't mean she could do it, but she could still try right? She wound her arm and chucked the ball at the net, imagining it sinking into the pocket. And it did. She opened her eyes in surprise. She'd heard it swoosh into the net pocket. She turned with a grin to Kurt. He wasn't smiling. She stopped grinning. Had she done something to offend him?

"You used your powers again."

She fidgeted; she hadn't meant to, but they were a part of her. She couldn't help it, she supposed.

"She sure did," Professor Xavier said from behind them. Neither had noticed him arrive.

"I was trying to get her to stop using them."

"I know. Instead, you got her to focus them, and without broadcasting them into anyone's mind."

'I didn't?' she asked.

"No, you did not. Try it again and see if you can replicate that."

Emery picked up another ball, closed her eyes, and threw it at the net. It was easy to imagine it curving like Kurt's had, sailing smoothly down into a hole. Swoosh, she heard. She opened her eyes in delight. She'd never really focused her powers before, besides the mental communication. Everything else always came out massive or ill-controlled.

"Well done," the Professor said. "Now, you are no longer allowed to communicate mentally, unless circumstances arise that it is needed. Understood?"

So that was his thought process.

'But…'

"Ah ah, no mental. Understood?"

"Understood."

Kurt tensed at the sound of her voice. The Professor handed her a piece of paper.

'What is…?'

"No mental," the Professor chided.

"What is this?" she asked.

"Your class schedule. Since you are old enough to be out of high school, you will be on a training and educational schedule here at the Institute." The Professor left, not bothering to wait around for her opinion.

She looked at it.

Monday:

11:00am: Target Practice, Instructor: Gambit, Location: Outdoor Range

12:00am: Classic Literature, Instructor: Beast, Location: Second Floor Library Classroom

2:00pm: Water Training, Instructor: Cyclops, Location: Pool, Lake, and otherwise decided by Instructor

6:00pm: Images, Instructor: Jean Grey, Location: Basement Testing Room

8:00pm: Yoga, Instructor: Storm, Location: Front Lawn

9:00pm: Combative Training, Instructor: Wolverine, Location: Danger Room

Tuesday:

10:00am: Hand to Hand Combat, Instructor: X-23, Location: Second Training Field

11:00am: Language (of your choosing), Instructor: Self-Study, Location: Library

1:00pm: Obstacle Course, Instructor: Rogue, Location: First Training Field

6:00pm: Partner Training, Instructor: Professor X, Location: Danger Room

7:00pm: Combative Training, Instructor: Wolverine, Location: Danger Room

Wednesday:

10:00am: Weapons, Instructor: (Will Vary), Location: Basement Testing Room

1:00pm: Edibles, Instructor: Storm, Location: Kitchen, Woods, Library as required

2:00pm: Weights, Instructor: Self-Study (with Partner of your choosing), Location: Weight Room

3:00pm: Science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc.), Instructor: Beast, Location: Second Floor Classroom 3

4:00pm: Combative Training, Instructor: Wolverine, Location: Danger Room

Thursday:

10:00am: Mathematics, Instructor: Professor X, Location: Second Floor Classroom 2

11:00am: Partner Training, Instructor: Professor X, Location: Danger Room

2:00pm: Electronics, Instructor: Boom-Boom, Location: Second Floor Classroom 1

3:00pm: Endurance Training, Instructor: Rogue, Location: Determined By Instructor

7:00pm: Combative Training, Instructor: Wolverine, Location: Danger Room

Friday:

10:00am: Power Studies, Instructor: Nightcrawler, Location: Basement Testing Room 2

1:00pm: History, Instructor: Self-Study, Location: Library

2:00pm: First Aid, Instructor: Beast, Location: Second Floor Classroom 2

3:00pm: Modern Governments, Instructor: Cyclops, Location: Second Floor Classroom 3

4:00pm: Hand to Hand Combat, Instructor: Nightcrawler, Location: Second Training Field

Saturday:

2:00pm: Combative Training, Instructor: Storm and Beast, Location: Danger Room

4:00pm: Music, Instructor: Self-Study, Location: Music Room

7:00pm: Partner Training, Instructor: Professor X, Location: Danger Room

Sunday:

Everyone is required to Train 1 Hour in the Danger Room alone, with a supervisor in the booth.

Everyone is required to stop by Beast's Infirmary for a routine check-up of physical health.

Other Rules:

Everyone is required to help clean up messes. That being said, if you make a mess, you clean it.

Danger Room Sessions are for Team Training. We spent the last week catching you up in the Danger Room, of sorts. You have been placed with the team that I feel would be most beneficial. Yes, this is Kurt's team. I warn you this is one of the advanced teams, so you may find yourself needing to play catch up, or familiarize yourself with trusting them to help you.

Ororo cooks a delicious breakfast every morning at eight. If you are not awake for it, breakfast will be of your own making. Lunch and Dinner are served by staff at 12:00pm and 5:00pm. Again, if you are not available for said times, food will be of your own making. There is a staff kitchen, which Ororo and her Edibles classes are the only ones, and times I expect any of you to be in there. There is a separate kitchen stocked with food for when you need a fend-for-yourself style meal, or even a snack.

Invading someone's personal space, or for that matter mental space, is unwarranted unless permission is granted or established.

All self-study courses will be tested once a month to gage progress, nothing more.

The Library, Music Room, Kitchen, and Social Room are open at all hours. Training rooms of all kinds and Classrooms will be locked at midnight.

Training without a supervisor of adequate level is not allowed. I.E. Adequate supervisors are as follows: Jean, Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Beast, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Shadowcat, Magma, Boom-Boom, Iceman, X-23, and of course myself.

'He expects me…'

"Mental," Kurt interrupted her.

"…to do all of this every week?"

'Yes."

"What if I don't want to?"

"You'll get a three hour session in the Danger Room set zu a level above vhere you are vith Heir Logan there to ensure you don't get killed."

'That…' "…doesn't sound like fun."

"It's nicht."

"What's today?"

"Saturday."

"Do I start tomorrow?"

"Ja, I vould think so."

Kurt had avoided looking at her the entire time, his body tense and unflinching.

"So," she drawled.

Kurt shifted his feet.

"You're going to be my teacher huh?" She smirked.

He turned his head to look at her.

"Ja."

"What are we going to do in these classes? Who else will be there?"

"Niemand, their private classes, und ve vill do a lot, Em."

"Your English is slipping."

"Your English is vocal."

"Do you not like my voice?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. It was so very tempting to crawl inside his brain and take a look at what he was thinking.

His gaze traveled to her lips, then to her eyes. "Im gegenteil."

She raised an eyebrow, slowly starting the process of working herself into his brain.

"I like your voice," he said carefully, ensuring he spoke English.

By now she'd already crept into his mind. She gasped unintentionally at the thoughts and emotions swirling about his brain, and unintentionally sent a mental shock to his brain.

The shock wasn't painful as much as surprising. Kurt flinched and immediately knew she'd been in his brain. 'Wundervoll,' he thought sarcastically.

"Emery," he said cautiously, face flushing.

She shook her head. She didn't know how to handle the knowledge she'd pried for. She took off running for the mansion, and her room.


	11. Chapter 11: Emery Outside

"Emery I'm sorry," Kurt said for the thirtieth time.

He had teleported to her room, and had been patiently sitting on her bed when she arrived all out of sorts. Purple sparks were flying around her where the air touched her and even more so where her feet touched the ground. She had taken one look at him on her bed, turned around, and walked away. He got up to follow her, considering he had no idea where she would head now, but halfway down the main stairs Kitty caught his arm.

"Come here for a second," she urged.

"But Katzchen," he stammered.

"No buts, I like, need to talk to you."

So he had no choice really but to go with Kitty. Maybe giving Emery a little time would help.

It hadn't.

"Emery," he pleaded, surprised she hadn't attacked him, anyone else, or gone mental like she had last time something like this came up. It seemed she was learning fast how to roll in her emotions and therefore her powers. It had only been two weeks since Emery's arrival, but her progression was quick and painless.

Emery reached for a plate. It was around two o'clock on Sunday, and Emery was starving. She knew where the sandwich supplies were by now and commenced in making herself a bologna sandwich.

"Emery, vhy does it bother you so much? Haven't you seen other guys' minds?"

She dropped the plate she was holding. Kurt's hand caught it before it hit the ground. He placed it onto the counter.

"I have," she said shortly.

"Dann vhy did mine bother you? I don't even know vhat you heard or saw, but I vasn't thinking of anything that bad."

He recalled what he'd been thinking about. Her voice was beautiful; he could listen to her all day. He wanted to kiss those lips, that throat that made such a wonderful sound. He wanted to hear her make sounds of pleasure too. Gott, that must be vhat she freaked out about, Kurt thought.

He pulled out of his thoughts just to catch a glimpse of Emery leaving the kitchen.

"Herr hilf mir," he whispered before following her out the door.

Neither one of them said a word until they were situated on the couch in the living room. Oddly, no one was in there. Emery turned the TV on to the USA channel. Kurt sat cross-legged watching her eat her sandwich and ignore him. When she was done eating, he said:

"Emery, I can't read your mind like you can read mine, you vill need to talk to me about things for me to understand und or help."

She placed the dish on the end-stand and turned to look at Kurt. Well that was a step forward, Kurt thought. She crawled towards him until he was leaning back against the arm of the couch, with her cuddled against his chest. Now he was really confused.

'I can't tell you.'

She was in his brain.

'Why not?'

'It's personal.'

'Personal embarrassing or personal inappropriate?'

'Bit of both.'

'Please tell me?'

An image of a high school flashed through his brain.

"Can you show me?" he asked quietly.

Hearing his voice out loud, so soft and willing to understand, she let her mental barrier down.

~Flashback to three years ago~

Emery stood in from of the bathroom sink, staring into the mirror. A boy stood behind her.

"Do you want a ride home today?" he asked.

Emery was fixing her hair, her skirt.

"No, thanks. I'll catch a ride with Kimi after practice."

"Alright," the boy kissed her cheek. "I'll see you later."

He left the bathroom.

When Emery had made herself presentable again, she exited the bathroom too. She walked down the hall towards her history class. Not that she wanted to go, and not like anyone could force her to go, but she had to uphold her image as the smartest, prettiest, most popular girl in school. She took her seat at the front of the room.

The bell rang and Mr. Dorbstein began his boring lecture on some foreign government's history that she could care less about. Her mind was on the events of the previous period. She had gone so much farther with him than she'd meant to, but it wasn't the first time.

She could hear the people behind her whispering, not caring, if she heard them. They were jealous of her and her boyfriend. That was all it was. Just because she was dating the best looking guy at school it didn't give them the right to insult her.

"No brains. Just body. No wonder Chet is tapping that."

And that's when the feeling struck. Her head and back begin to sear with pain, it built up slowly until her body felt like it was on fire. She screamed. It was only afterwards that she remembered she had though. She clutched at her head as she crumpled to the floor.

"Owww," she whimpered. "It hurts. Make it go away. It hurts so much," she mumbled over and over.

The teacher ran over to help her.

"Don't touch me. Don't touch me. Don't touch me." She was hysterical, and in quite a lot of pain.

Chet, the boy from before, arrived before the nurse. He knelt down beside her, resting his hand on her back and moving her hair out of her eyes. Not that it mattered, because they were clenched shut from pain.

"What's wrong? What hurts? Em, tell me."

Her body rippled. She screamed. Chet scooped her up, and she clawed him.

"Shit," he cursed. "Those are some sharp nails Em."

He carried her towards the nurse's office, meeting the nurse on the way who shot questions at him. He told her what he knew. Placing Emery on one of the beds in the infirmary, Chet knelt down beside her once more.

"Where does it hurt Em, we can't help you if you don't tell us what's wrong."

Chet was always so sweet to her. What did those jealous people know about their relationship anyway?

"My head, my back. Chet… it hurts so much," she whimpered.

Her body rippled again and suddenly her clothes were uncomfortable.

"My clothes, oh my god, get them off me, get them off!" she cried, squirming in pain.

He did as she asked, despite the nurse insisting that he not undress her. He told her off; telling her it wasn't anything he hadn't already seen. She lay curled up naked on the bed, her body pulsing in pain. Ever so slowly, a tail grew from the base of her spine.

"What's going on?" Chet asked backing up. "What's happening to her?"

"I… well I don't know. Maybe she's turning into one of those mutant people," the nurse responded.

Emery's ears began to form. Chet and the nurse simply stared. They ignored her sounds of pain, never moved to aide her.

Her cat-like tail, ears, and nails had emerged fully from her body. She felt numb and sore all at once.

"You're a mutant," Chet said flatly.

"What? No I'm not," Emery said sitting up quickly. She should not have done that; a wave of dizziness hit her full force. "Oh," she murmured raising a hand to her head, her claws subconsciously retracted. There she felt fur, furry ears. Her eyes widened.

"I have ears?"

"And a tail."

Emery felt behind her and then studied her tail in horrified awe.

"I'm a freak."

"You are."

"How did this happen? I don't know how this happened? How is this possible? I was normal last period."

"That was two periods ago and you disgust me. Don't ever come near me again, we're through. I can't be seen with some freak of nature. In fact, I don't ever want to see you or hear your voice ever again Em."

Her eyes became teary. "You still called me Em though. You must still care at least a little."

"I don't. Who could care about a freak like you," he sneered.

And with that the boy who had been her best friend since grade school, and boyfriend since 8th grade, walked out of the infirmary and out of her life.


	12. Chapter 12: Rogue vs Panther?

Kurt held her close to him. He kissed her forehead.

This was the first thing about her past she had told him.

"Emery," he cooed. "It's okay. You're here now, with me, und I'm not going anywhere."

She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck.

"Is he the only one that's ever called you Em?"

She nodded.

"I'm nothing like him Emery. I'm not going anywhere. I think your tail und ears are niedlich. I like them. It's as if you are made for me."

Kurt wrapped his tail gently around hers, and one hand strayed from her back to the top of her head, where he massaged the base of her ears with his fingers. She melted beneath his hands, relaxing and purring.

Kurt woke up the next morning, still on the couch, to a pillow being thrown against his head.

"Would the two of ya'll get up. Remy sent me to get Emery; she's late for Target Practice," Rogue yelled at the two of them.

Kurt shook Emery. "Wake up Em."

'I'm awake,' she shot mentally.

"Up, up, let's go," Rogue said pulling Panther to her feet. "You're late for Remy's target practice."

Kurt caught the look in Emery's eye as Rogue dragged her outside to the range. He sighed in exasperation, "Oh boy."

He teleported out to the range, in time to see Rogue dragging Emery across the yard. Well, Rogue was still getting her way, still alive. That meant that Emery was reeling in her temper. Granted, she had started to lay off Rogue more so than the others one she learned that he and Rogue were practically siblings. The Professor, Rogue, and he were the only people she was opening up to. He needed to think of a way to get her to trust the rest of the x-men. Maybe the Professor was right, and getting her into classes would push her to do so.

"Get out of my head suga'," Rogue told Emery.

Emery pulled her mind out of Rogue's. Oh, this no mental communication situation was going to be annoying.

"I can get there myself Rogue."

"Do you know where it is?"

"...No."

"Then I'm bringing you there."

"Whatchu doin' here?" Remy asked. "You're not scheduled for my class," he said in his thick Cajun accent.

"I don't have class for a few more minutes. I vanted to make sure Emery vasn't going to freak out on mein sister."

"Cherie can handle herself."

"No she can't."

"You're saying my cherie can't fight?"

"No, I'm just saying Emery is destructive if angered."

"Cherie can take her."

"You're wrong."

"We'll see about that, 'ere dey come."

Rogue let go of Emery's arm as Emery stumbled forward.

"Sorry for being late. What are we doing in class?"

"Well actually, we thought we'd see how your fightin' is."

"What?"

"He vants you to fight him," Kurt explained.

"No no, I want you to fight her." Gambit pointed to Rogue.

'I don't want to fight her,' Emery said in Kurt's head.

"Gambit..." Kurt started.

"Oh no, I've got a class to teach in ten minutes, you can fight her," Rogue said.

'I don't want to fight him either,' Emery told Kurt mentally.

"Gambit," Kurt tried again.

"Aw come on cherie," Gambit said stepping closer to her. "What harm can a little friendly fight do?"

'A lot of harm, to your sister.'

"I don't think," Kurt was ignored.

"Alright! Alright, we'll spare a little."

'This is a bad idea.'

"Guys!" Kurt yelled.

"What?" Rogue and Gambit asked simultaneously.

"This is a bad idea."

"He's just afraid that my cherie will beat his katchzen," Gambit said, mocking the way Kurt said katchzen.

'She'll get hurt.'

'Put her down on the ground; keep her there until she surrenders. It won't hurt her, and they'll stop.'

"Fine, go," Kurt said.

Emery turned to face Rogue as Rogue reached for her, and flipped her onto the ground. Emery gasped in pain as she hit the ground hard. Kurt took a step forward to help her. Gambit snatched his arm.

"Give 'er a minute."

Emery sent a mental siren out from her mind. Rogue backed off, clutching at her head, but so did Gambit and Kurt.

"Emery!" Kurt yelled over the sirens in his brain. "Selective brain waves!"

The sirens didn't stop. The three of them sunk to the ground, slowly losing control of their motor functions as the pitch reached higher frequencies.

"Em, stop! Emery! You need to calm down!"

Emery tried to take a deep breath, but it hurt too much. She was in so much pain; she didn't think she could move. When she tried, her body erupted in lightning bolts. It hurt so much. She cried out mentally, a loud screeching siren cast out of her mind. She could hear Kurt yelling at her, but she didn't know what he saying. Emery stilled her body, and after a few seconds the pain began to recede. And as the pain began to recede, so did the sirens.

The moment Kurt could move, he was by Emery's side.

"Em, what's wrong?"

'It hurts.'

"What hurts?"

'I can't tell. I can't move. It just hurts...'

"I'm going to teleport us to Beast's infirmary. Do you think you can handle that?"

'Just do it.'

"I need to check something. I'll be right back."

Kurt teleported down to Beast's lab. Beast was busy at work.

"Why hello Kurt," he greeted.

"I need your help. Emery's hurt. I'm going to teleport her onto one of the beds in the infirmary."

"What is the nature of her injuries?"

"I don't know. She hit the ground pretty hard."

"Perhaps it is a broken bone."

"I hope not," Kurt said as he teleported back to Emery. He took her hand in his and teleported down to the infirmary. She landed with a soft thud on the bed. She groaned in pain.

"Verzihung Katzchen," Kurt apologized. He brushed her hair off her face with his free hand.

"Let me take a look," Beast's voice came from behind him.

After several minutes of questions, random poking, and Emery sharing her pain mentally with Beast, he concluded that she had broken a rib, perhaps two. The x-ray machine was hooked up and the results showed that she did indeed break a rib on her left side, and fracture two, one on each side.

"Most rib injuries heal on their own," Beast told Kurt.

"But, she has a broken one."

"They will heal, but she will need to stay in bed until things take a turn for the better."


	13. Chapter 13: Transformation

"Take a deep breath," Kurt encouraged. Beast had given Emery exercises to do while her ribs healed. Emery was always willing to do them, even if they hurt her a bit, but she tended to forget about them. Kurt was constantly reminding her. Once Beast had explained the situation clearly to Kurt, it wasn't long before Emery was calm and capable of being tended to, like he was doing now. Emery had handled it far better than Rogue. The Professor had been forced to send Rogue away on a roundabout mission in order to get her away from Emery. She had tried to do everything for Emery, to make up for causing her injury. It only provoked Emery's temper.

So now, Kurt was once again the only one Emery would deal with. Sure, the Professor and Beast frequently talked with her, but when it came down to it, Kurt was the one left to take care of her. For a few days she was bedridden, except when Kurt carried her to the bathroom. After three days with no shower, Emery's patience was gone. Kurt woke up Friday morning to find Emery's not only empty, but stripped of its sheets and bedding.

Kurt teleported down to Beast's lab and questioned him about Emery's whereabouts. Beast told him he didn't know. They had begun a search for her. In the middle of searching, Kurt had bumped into Ororo.

"Storm, have you seen Emery?"

"I have. She asked me to take her bed sheets down to be washed while she bathed. Poor child hadn't been in the shower in days. It was making her very uncomfortable."

"She's… in de shower?"

"I would assume so."

"Danke," Kurt thanked Storm and gave her a hug.

He teleported back to Emery's room in time to catch her opening the bathroom door.

"Du hatte me worried!" Kurt chided, his English slipping again.

"I wanted a shower."

Kurt took a seat on her barren bed and sighed. Why did he always get so worked up over her?

"Let's go to class."

"Class? You've got broken ribs. You can't go to class," Kurt said appalled.

"I have one healing, broken rib. And sure I can." She pulled a piece of paper out from the drawer by her bed and handed it to Kurt. It read:

'I, Dr. "Beast" McCoy, the Physician for Emery "Panther" (Last Name Unknown), on this third Friday in August , the year of her arrival to this institution, deem her fit for the following courses and the like on her schedule:

Friday

Power Studies: as her mutant ability is mainly mental and has proved to hold very little strain on the area of her injury.

History Self-Study: as this does not require physical assertion.

First-Aid: as I am the instructor and qualified to mediate and moderate her studies.

Modern Governments: as this course does not require physical assertion.

Saturday

Music: so long as the instrument she chooses to study does not require lung-capacity or active, stressful, or jerky movements. I suggest learning slower tempo songs on the piano until further notice.

Sunday

Mandatory Check-up of Physical Health: self-explanatory.

Monday:

Classic Literature: as this does not require physical assertion.

Images: so long as they stick to the basics and do nothing too bodily strenuous.

Tuesday

Language: as this does not require physical assertion.

Wednesday

Edibles: as this does not particularly require physical assertion. However, should the class be taken outside, she will be required to stay sitting inside and read from the course book.

Science: considering I am the instructor, I will start her on a course science that does not involve physical assertion or chemical reactions. Perhaps I will start with Physics formulas.

Thursday

Mathematics: as this does not require physical assertion.

Allowed courses are subject to change in either direction, positive or negative, according to my daily diagnosis of her injuries. That being said, as of today the courses that were not listed are prohibited for the following reasons. Should these reasons no longer be an issue, the associated course will be added to her schedule once more.

Reason- Strenuous movement will hinder healing process:

Friday- Hand to Hand Combat

Saturday- Combative Training, Partner Training

Sunday- Danger Room

Monday- Target Practice, Water Training, Yoga, Combative Training

Tuesday- Hand to Hand Combat, Obstacle Course, Partner Training, Combative Training

Wednesday- Weapons, Weights, Combative Training

Thursday- Partner Training, Endurance Training, Combative Training

Reason- Teacher Unavailable

Monday- Target Practice

Tuesday- Obstacle Course

Thursday- Endurance Training

Reason- Teacher Deemed Unfit to Teach Injured Students

Monday- Combative Training

Tuesday- Hand to Hand Combat, Combative Training

Wednesday- Combative Training

Thursday- Electronics, Combative Training

I have a saved copy of this document. Any alterations on anyone's part will be obvious and punishment for altering a document written by a legal doctor, while illegal, will be taken care of by me, Dr. McCoy, and the Professor within the confines of this establishment. Legal action will not be taken, but punishment will be awarded. Detention, extra work, we'll think of something.'

On the bottom was Beast's flourished signature.

"Vhen did Beast type this up?"

"Really early this morning I asked him to let me do something besides sit in bed."

"Of course, vhile I was sleeping."

"So power training in twenty minutes."

"Looks like it."

"You're my teacher. What are we going to do in class?"

"I don't know. I haven't thought about it. I've been worried about you."

Emery pressed her lips together. She knew that. She wished he would stop worrying over everything. It was an accident. She should have been faster, anticipated Rogue's move, read it in her mind. She hadn't and she'd accepted the consequences. This injury was a lesson in combat, one she was learning the hard way, but she was learning.

"I haven't been communicating with my mind."

Kurt's face brightened a little, but he still didn't smile. She wanted to see him smile.

"You've been doing wondurbal." He paused. "Come here."

Emery tilted her head, questioning him for a second. Then, she stepped forward to him. He moved his arms around her, barely touching her, until his hands rested on her back. He slowly rubbed her back.

"I vould hug you if it veren't for your ribs."

'I'd like that,' she whispered in his mind.

Power Training was supposed to take what she already knew her powers could do and see how far she could push them. That was the difficult part. The thing she needed to master was control over her powers.

"I'm just going to toss balls in the air today Em. I vant you to stop them mid-throw and set them on the floor. Not drop them, but set them. Gently."

'Understood.'

"Mental.'  
"Understood."

Kurt tossed the first ball into the air. Emery stared at the ball. It burst into pieces.

Her eyes widened. "I wasn't trying to do that, I swear. I was just trying to apply force and make it stop."

"Vell… vhat you did, did not work. Try something else."

He threw a second ball. Emery focused on the ball this time not applying force, as to not rip it. Instead she willed it to stop. The ball slowed, faster than it should have if gravity alone was acting on it, but it continued its path and fell to the floor.

"Gutt. Again, try to stop the ball completely this time."

The third ball slowed easier, but instead of setting it on the floor, it just slowly fell on the floor.

"I'm not sure if that's better or not, but keep trying," Kurt encouraged.

The fourth ball flew into the air faster than Emery expected. Her fingers instinctively opened from a fist to an open-palm. The ball completely stopped in mid-air.

"There! That, that right there. That's it. Vhatever you did, that's it!" Kurt grinned.

Emery smiled, her focus turned from the ball to Kurt, and the ball crashed to the floor.

"Ve need to vork on you not getting distracted, but that'll be next week. Try this again."

He tossed the next ball into the air. She stopped the ball once more; her mind was able to freeze the ball in mid-air.

"Gutt. Now set it on the floor gently. Pretend it's a bomb or something."

Emery hesitated. Kurt hadn't realized his mistake. When he told her to pretend it was a bomb, her mind automatically pictured a bomb, and the simple dodge-ball type ball transformed. She knew she was capable of this, but she had no control over it. That was part of the reason she read other's minds, so she always knew what was around and her imagination would not run away from her.

'Kurt. Is this room contained like the danger room is?'

"Yes, but vhy vould…"

'I need you to leave the room and let me into your brain.'

"Emery vhat are you talking about? Vhy are you so worried? It's just a ball."

'Professor wants us to be partners correct?'

"Yes."

'Then be my partner and trust me. Get out.'

"Alright. Fine. I'll go."

He left the room, and watched her. He felt the familiar tug of her mind.

Emery closed her eyes and saw herself in Kurt's eyes. Slowly, she backed out of the room. When she pressed back against Kurt, she whispered into his brain:

'Shut the door.'

Instinctively, Kurt wrapped one arm around her, and closed the door with the other. Emery let go of her hold on the ball-bomb. It fell to the ground and exploded into fiery bits. Kurt's eyes widened at the sound of the explosion.

"Vhat just happened?"

'Never, tell me to pretend, ever again.'

The room was covered in scorch marks, a few dents imprinted on the surfaces of the room. It was a good thing that there hadn't been anything in the room besides a bag of dodge balls. All of which were now scorched from the explosion. Kurt was in shock. He'd prompted her to pretend it was a bomb; he hadn't even considered the possibly, hadn't known, that her powers could alter matter in such a way.

Beast and Boom-Boom, who were the closest at the sound of the explosion, came running. Kurt calmly explained to them what happened, as far as he knew anyway.

"This is completely against what science knows," Beast said flabbergasted.

"Sweet!" Boom-Boom exclaimed.

"May I suggest, in the future, we all be careful about what precisely we say around our dear Panther here?" Beast reprimanded Kurt.

Emery turned on her heel and left.

"I need to go talk to the Professor."

Kurt watched her go.

"I guess that means you'll be cleaning up the practice room," Boom-Boom said skipping of to teach her next course.

Beast clapped a large hand on Kurt's shoulder. "I will help you. Let's get to work, I sense Emery may need some privacy to discuss with the Professor."

"You're probably right," Kurt said half-heartedly. He teleported to get the cleaning supplies that were needed. When he and Beast were hard at work, Beast singing a song he didn't know, he began to think. He didn't know much about Emery to be honest. He liked her, a lot, but he just didn't know what to do about her. Her powers were uncontrollable and dangerous: just like another girl he knew. He sighed. God he wished his best friend were here. She might have better advice for Emery seeing as her powers were uncontrollable at one point too, and definitely were still dangerous as hell. He hadn't had as much trouble with his own powers. There was a limit to what he could do with his powers of teleportation. Emery seemed to have endless possibilities and he just did not know how to help her. He was trying his hardest, but it seemed like things weren't going to well. She hadn't told him she could transform objects into other things. He hadn't had a clue. The first thing he would do next class, would be to sit down and talk to her so he could figure out exactly what she knew about her own powers. Then maybe, he could begin to help her control them.


	14. Chapter 14: First

"Well that's quite the situation you've presented me with. I'm not sure there is anything I can do to help you with that at this time, besides work with you to develop control over yourself and your gifts. I am capable of illusions such as that, but never have I changed an object as blatantly as you have," the Professor explained.

"Any ideas? Anything at all that could help me. I almost killed Kurt today!"

"Yes, indeed. You seem quite attached to that boy."

Emery stared expressionlessly at the Professor.

Eighty-three miles away, by a remote facility, the shadow floated around in circles. There had to be a way inside. Disembodied did not mean capable of passing through things. Oh no, not for this shadow. There must be a way that it could get inside. Suddenly, it came up with an idea, and began to develop a plan. It smirked mentally, having no face and therefore no mouth to smirk with.

"I'm glad you came to me for help Emery; I'm sorry if I didn't give you the answers or ideas you wanted to hear."

Emery stood up to leave the Professor's office.

"Oh yes! One more thing, I almost forgot to tell you. I wanted to let you know ahead of time that one of Kurt's friends will be returning to us soon."

"Why would you need to tell me that ahead of time?"

"They're very close. I worry that you will have an emotional disturbance that affects your powers again."

"You think I'm going to get jealous. Over Kurt's best friend?"

"Jealous is one option. But there are many emotions Emery, just because they are not immediately thought of does not mean they won't make an appearance. Promise me you'll try to retain your powers upon her arrival?"

"Her?" Emery questioned.

"Promise me."

"Yes sir, I promise."

"Good, now why don't you go get a book from the library and eat some lunch? I'm sure you must be hungry from the use of your powers. Relax a bit, alright?"

"Yes, sir," Emery nodded.

Emery traversed down to the kitchen and opened the fridge. She was surprised to find a bowl there with her name on it. 'For Emery, From Ororo. I thought you could use a nice pasta salad to cheer you up. You'll heal soon enough. Enjoy!' Emery smiled at the note. That was nice of Ororo. She was very mother-like. Her smile faded. She hadn't meant to remind herself of her mother. Emery tried hard not to remember a thing about her mother. She opened the container of pasta and retrieved a fork out of the utensil drawer. Making her way to the library, she thought about what the Professor had said. So Kurt's best friend was a girl. Emery wondered if Kurt and his best friend had a relationship like she and Chet had had. She almost choked on her food. Frowning, she hadn't realized when she'd begun thinking about Chet, but images were passing before her eyes.

FLASHBACK

"Come on Em, jump! It's not that high!" Chet called to her from the pool. She hated heights like this, heights that left her on unsure ground and a long, long fall to the ground. Granted, this was water, not the ground.

'Yes it is,' she thought. 'Why on earth would anyone do this?'

"Oh come on Em, just get down here."

She sighed. She was going to regret this. She really was. Closing her eyes, she jumped off the 30 foot high diving board. She landed in the water with a loud splash, sinking below the water seven, eight, almost nine feet deep. Emery opened her eyes, realizing she wasn't close enough to the bottom of the pool to push off, and began to swim to the surface. After what felt like ages, hurt lungs screaming for air, her legs kicking furiously, she felt herself being pulled up to the surface and towards the rim of the pool. Chet's arm wrapped around her tightly, holding her above the water; his other hand was secured on the edge.

"You alright there, Em?"

She took several gasping breaths before she replied.

"I am never, ever, doing that again." Then she proceeded to smack him upside the head. "I almost died!"

"Aw come on, that's a bit over dramatic don't you think? How did you feel?"

Emery glared at him. "It was terrifying."

"But isn't your adrenaline going?" Chet smirked.

"When my heartbeat returns to normal, I'll let you know."

He laughed. He set her up on the edge of the pool and hopped up beside her. Without warning, he pulled her to him and kissed her square on the lips. They kissed, tenderly, for a long time. When they finally stopped, Chet's smirk was gone. His face now held a look of uncertainty.

"I… I'm sorry Em. I guess I let my adrenaline control me for a second."

She took a minute to come back to reality. She hadn't expected him to kiss her. Ever. He'd been her best friend for years and never once did he hint at becoming anything more.

She took hold of his hand, mostly to steady herself, but partly to ensure he didn't leave her there.

"It's okay Chet. I didn't mind."

He blinked. "You're… okay with it?"

"I am."

"Can I kiss you again then?"

Emery blushed, but nodded.

And by the poolside, Chet gave her both her first kiss, and let her experience her first make out session.

FLASHBACK END

That was right. Chet had been her first kiss. He'd been her first everything. She'd never really thought about it before. He'd been her first friend, her first crush, her first boyfriend, her first kiss, make-out, hickey, sex, and much more. He'd taken her to her first movie at the movie theater, taking her skiing for the first time. He'd even given her, her first puppy as a birthday present. Emery curled up on the chair in the library, pasta empty, body cold, and tears running down her face. He'd been her whole life. His loss was burning a black hole in her heart.

Kurt and Beast spent the next hour scrubbing the scorch marks off the floor.

"Well, the wall and ceiling are going to have to wait for another day. I have a class to teach and you have a girl to check on," Beast said.

Kurt stopped scrubbing the spot on the floor.

"Ja, I'm getting sore from this work. I could use a break."

They left the room, locked the door, and parted ways. Kurt teleported up to the Professor's office to see if Emery was still there.


	15. Chapter 15: Kurt's Best Friend

**[Author's Note: A.J. (Bio-Hazard) is property of StormFireGirl (on ) and is therefore not my creation. I will do my best to stay true to her character as portrayed in "X-Men Evolution: Bio-Hazard" by StormFireGirl. I have her permission to use her character. Also! Bio-Hazard is a few years older in my story (as opposed to her story) due to the fact that Nightcrawler is older in my story than hers.**

**PS- Emery is 19, Kurt is 22, AJ is 15 just for an age reference for you guys.]**

"Professor, is Emery still here?" Kurt asked opening the door to the Professor's office.

"Kurt!" he heard someone yell. He was tackled to the ground and engulfed in a hug, the person's face buried in his neck. That was definitely not Emery.

"A.J.?" Kurt asked puzzled. Kurt thought she was away still.

"Yup!"

Kurt grinned. "Welcome back."

"Why thank you," A.J. grinned.

"I sent her to the kitchen," the Professor answered Kurt's question.

"Come on A.J., I've got someone I vould like you to meet."

"Hi! My name's A.J., but you can call me Bio-Hazard."

A.J. held out a gloved hand to Emery. Emery looked at her hand, not moving to take it. Kurt and the Professor watched her cautiously. When it became evident that Emery had no intention of shaking A.J.'s hand, Kurt took a step forward.

"Don't vorry about it A.J.," Kurt said gently pushing her hand down. "Emery's a bit sensitive around people she doesn't know."

Emery twitched in annoyance. She was _not _'a bit sensitive'. She was distrusting and despised people she didn't know or, duh, didn't like. She did not know nor like this Bio-Hazard, with her hair in her face, an odd glowing green, and her visible eye inspecting Emery's ears and tail like she was getting ready to touch them.

Particles of her familiar purple plasma began forming like rain drops in a cloud, speckling the air in the room, but they were so minute that no one noticed they were there. Emery tried to make them go away, and only succeeded in making them solid.

A.J. reached out towards Emery again, and in that moment the particles grew, sharpening to points. Emery took a step back and the needle-like plasma went racing towards Bio-Hazard. Emery was trying to restraining herself. She really was. Everything just happened so fast. Kurt reacted much faster than everyone else in the room. He teleported and snatched A.J. out of the middle of the rush, taking her completely out of the room for a few seconds. This was just enough time for the Professor to put up a mental shield around himself and for Emery to speed up the reaction. The needles all collided in the center of the room. Purple exploded everywhere, shards flying backwards in every direction. They bounced harmlessly off the Professor's shield and dissolved back into plasma on contact with Emery.

Kurt and A.J. poofed back into the room.

"You used your powers against a fellow X-man again," the Professor chided.

"I retained my powers. Had they not been retained, she would have died instantly."

Bio-Hazard backed up. "She's completely crazy!" She turned and ran out of the room.

Kurt started after her, but found himself restrained by one of Emery's mental tricks, unable to move forward.

'You almost killed her!' he flung his words at her mentally. 'Don't stop me from going.'

Emery's ears flattened against her head; her usually active tail left unmoving.

"Kurt," she whispered. "It's me or her..." she mumbled so no one would hear.

Kurt stared at her. "Vhat?" He almost preferred her voice in his head, at least then he would know what words she was saying.

A.J. was pretty. Emery couldn't deny that. Of course it made sense that he wanted her more.

"You should go check on her."

Kurt watched Emery, with her eyes downcast, for another moment before disappearing in a poof of smoke.

The Professor inched forwards in his chair. "Emery, I understand you're in an emotional conflict right now, but perhaps some physical work cleaning up what you've destroyed will help clear your mind. Think things through, I think you'll find you made a mistake in one of your assumptions. Please come talk to me when you've finished cleaning." He then took his leave as well.

Emery stared at the floor, feeling tears rolling down her cheek for the second time that day. Kurt had chosen Bio-Hazard over her. She had just started to let herself believe she could love someone again. She had begun to trust him like she had trusted Chet.

The shards laying on the floor and embedded in the walls began to slowly move towards her.

There was nothing anyone could say that would fix this, this time. She knew her powers were out of control. She knew there was no way she would ever get full control over them. They ran off emotions, and she was a girl. Her emotions ran high and low at the flip of a switch. She couldn't help it.

The shards began piling at her feet.

Bio-Hazard was friends with him first. It stood to reason she had a relationship with him first too. There was no reason Kurt would want her. She was just a destructive mind, a mutant that had no control what-so-ever on her abilities. She was dangerous. She saw that clearly now. There was no way anyone would be able to trust her, or even want her around if all she did was hurt people.

The shards were up to her knees.

Emery was an afterthought. She was just a mutant that they wanted on their team. They couldn't win against her, and therefore they just wanted to control her. That's all the people who the x-men had rescued her from had wanted too. And she had let them; she had let them all.

The shards reached her waist.

Becoming a mutant had forced her to lose everything she had, and prevented her from getting anything she wanted.

Her neck was no longer visible.

She'd clean up her mess. Yes, she would, but she wouldn't go see the Professor. Instead, she'd run away. She'd leave the x-mansion, Kurt, and the rest of them. There was no longer anything left for her here. She'd go tame her powers on her own. She'd find a way; she was powerful after all. That's why everyone wanted her.

The shards began creeping up her face, and combining into a crystalline shell.

She was done.

And so was the shell. It had completely encased her.

**[Cliff-Hanger... sorry lol but that's where it ends this time. Hope you like it. I will be going more into AJ's character. This is only her first appearance.**

**PS! I would like to point out to all readers that Emery is not thinking logically at this point. Just keep that in mind for the next couple chapters :) ]**


	16. Chapter 16: Danger Zone

**[Author's Note: A.J. (Bio-Hazard) is the property of StormFireGirl. I have her permission to use her character. I will do my best to stay true to A.J.'s character as portrayed in "X-men Evolution: Bio-Hazard".**

**I'm still working out how to fit story writing time into my mass homework, but I promise I'll find time to keep writing this story. I'm going to aim for at least one a week, so please be patient.]**

A.J. stood glaring at Kurt with her arms crossed.

"A.J.! A.J. she didn't mean it!"

"She almost killed me, and _you_, and the _Professor_."

"You almost killed me once too, remember?"

A.J. let her arms drop.

"Yeah.. I guess I did do that didn't I?"

"Emery isn't fully in control of her powers, und neither were you when you first got here."

"I'm sorry."

"Nein, it's my fault. I wasn't thinking. She's been a bit off with her abilities since Rogue broke her ribs."

"Rogue broke her _ribs_?" A.J. asked incredulously.

"Ja, she's still healing. You can understand why she's a little jumpy. Rogue and her were getting along, and then sparing, and ta-da."

"That sounds like it hurt."

"Of course it hurt."

"So what do I do?"

"Give her a little time to warm up to you, und wait for her to apologize. She won't say the words, but when she's sorry, you'll know."

A.J. nodded.

"I really vant you two to get along."

A.J. raised her visible eyebrow. "Why is that?"

Kurt blushed, looking down at his feet. "Vell, because, uhm.."

"Oh my _god!_" A.J. said excitedly. "You _like_ her!"

Kurt looked up at A.J.'s grin and flushed even more. "Ja..." he whispered.

A.J. squealed and tackled him to the ground for the second time that day.

The crystalline structure melted into plasmic goo. Emery stepped forward and, one by one, touched the holes left from the needles. The goo broke off of her, drop by drop, until each hole in the room was covered in goop. Cleaning up her mess was always easy for some reason. Maybe she just understood that part of her powers better. She waved her hand at the wall. The goop solidified and replaced the missing wall, changing into paint and plaster, making it seem like nothing had happened. Emery repeated the process with the rest of the room.

Finished cleaning up her mess, she slowly walked to her room. She watched her feet step forward, step forward, step forward, glowing purple at each contact with the floor.

Emery pushed open the door to her room. Collapsing on her bed she rested her eyes on the ceiling. Where could she go if she left? She didn't have a family, at least, not one that wanted her around. She didn't have friends anymore; they had all left her when they found out she was a mutie.

Kurt and A.J. had found a seat on the edge of A.J.'s bed.

"Soooo," A.J. prompted. "Tell me."

"Tell you vhat? I just told you I like her."

"How'd you meet? Where is she from? What does she like? Oo, what have you done? Dishhh," she babbled.

Kurt raised an eyebrow. Yup, A.J. was definately back.

"She was in a bad place. Ve rescued her."

"So she's like your princess," A.J. beamed.

"I suppose so."

"So have you asked her out yet?"

"...kinda."

"What do you mean kinda?"

The shadow arrived at the Xavier Institute and settled down in the bushes just outside the perimeter. It could sense the alarms and devices set up to alert everyone inside that there was an intruder present. Technology had been his hobby after all. It was capable of recognizing everything. It had no time restraints. It would wait, for the powerful one, and then possess her. She could get into the facility. She was just what It was looking for.

Emery rose from her bed. She was so confused. Where could she go? The Danger Room. That's where she'd go. The worst she would do in there would be to destroy the equipment, but that's what it was made for anyway. Quietly, in her natural panther-esk gait, she walked down to the Danger Room.

"You're telling me she went into a panic, which sent the two of you into another dimension, when you asked her if she wanted you to be her mate?"

"Uh... ja."

A.J. smacked Kurt upside the head. "You're supposed to ask her out, not go all animal planet on her!"

"But that's the way the Professor said her body functions," Kurt argued.

"Yeah, her hormones, not her mind or her heart," A.J. chided.

"So... vhat? I just ask her to be my mate?"

"No! You ask her if she'll date you, numnut."

Emery locked the door behind her. She had turned the Danger Room on, to level six. That was one level higher than the Professor had allowed her to practice in the last time she was in here. There had to be a way to get her powers under control. She didn't have anywhere else to go. She had to ensure she was able to stay here. And the only way she could do that is if she reeled her abilities in. She watched as the machines activated and trained their targets on her. Emery focused her mind, like she did for talking to someone mentally. Instead though, she focused on a sharpness, so strong in fact that the machine she was looking at was sliced into bits.

She mentally screamed as lasers emerged and aimed at her. Her emotions were spiraling in her head. It would have been easy for anyone to say so just by looking at her, had they been there, that she was losing control. Purple star spirals emitted from her, twisting spiraling, and destroying everything they came in contact with.

Wolverine ran into the room. "Is the little kitten here?"

"Uhm, no?" A.J. responded. "Not even a hello, welcome back for me?"

"Hello. Welcome back," Wolverine said flatly. "Kitten's missing."

"Vhat?" Kurt exclaimed.

"She wasn't in the kitchen when I went to check on her, and there's so much _purple_ smell everywhere I can't track her. She isn't in her room and I've had everyone I've run into look for her. No one's found her yet."

Kurt stood up. "Verdammt, this isn't gutt."

"We're going outside. There's only so much space in here, if she's inside someone will find her. You and I fuzzy are heading out. You too half-pint," he said pointing at A.J.

"Is she always this much of a handful?" A.J. asked following the two of them outside.

"Yes," Wolverine growled.

**[Author's Note: I don't know how long this is cause I type it in here. So, I'm sorry if it's shorter than the other ones, and yey if it's longer. I'll figure it out once I click publish. But.. yeah. Hope you're still liking the story and what's going on.]**


	17. Chapter 17: Possession

**[Author's Note: I apologize in advance for the split scenes if you do not like this style of writing.**

**Again: Bio-hazard is not my character. She belongs to StormFireGirl and I have her permission to use Bio-hazard in this story. Definitely go check out her Bio-hazard story =) Oh and this story takes place several years (I mentioned this two parts ago) after StormFireGirl's story due to the different age setting for the characters. Just for quick reference though:**

**Kurt (Nightcrawler) = 22**

**Emery (Panther) = 19**

**A.J. (Bio-hazard) = 15**

**If you guys have questions about the xmen I use, please feel free to ask them in the comments below. I don't always write everything that I know goes along with my stories. The only thing is if you ask something that I will be writing in, in later parts, I probably won't answer you. Instead I'll probably just tell you you'll have to read to find out =P**

**So enjoy!]**

"I can't see her any vhere," Nightcrawler groaned.

He, Wolverine, and Bio-hazard had separated when they got outside. Bio-hazard had gone towards the entrance. Wolverine had headed into the woods. And he had teleported as close to the outside arenas and practice areas that he could before he started searching. Panther wasn't anywhere to be seen. Hopefully either Bio-hazard or Wolverine had found her.

Wolverine sniffed around. Nothing. There wasn't even a speck of "purple" smell anywhere. The scent of pine had cleared his nose out, but it still hadn't picked up her, or her power's scent. This was not good. Every body knew how dangerous and unstable this one was. The Professor had warned him how much of a potential threat she could turn into if she turned against the x-men, if she turned against Kurt. Kurt was probably the only one that could stop her. Things weren't looking good.

Bio-hazard had headed towards the front gate of the institute. If Panther was running away, the logical explanation would be to leave through the front gate and go somewhere from there. She sped up her running; maybe if Panther wasn't moving fast she could catch up.

Panther's body began to glow a phosphorescent purple. Panicking, she began to think of getting out of the Danger Room. She could feel the power rising within her and, somehow, she knew: there would be nothing left of the Danger Room if she didn't get out of there. It was already in pieces, if she couldn't reel in her power, which wasn't going to happen, it would be destroyed on a molecular level. She took off running for outside.

Wolverine turned around, catching a whiff of that unique "purple" smell. Panther was out here somewhere. He took off running in the direction the smell came from.

Panther could see the front gate. She felt like she was going to explode; she was just about to lose grip on the power building inside of her. But, she just had to make it as far away from here as possible. She had to run.

Bio-hazard heard crackling behind her. Like someone was crumpling up a sheet of aluminum or something. Halting her feet, she turned around to see Panther running towards her.

The shadow had watched this green-haired girl run by him, but she wasn't the one he wanted. He returned to waiting patiently until he saw her approaching. Yes, yes this was going to work splendidly. He began to creep forward, a mass of black mist, heading straight for the on-coming Panther.

"Emery!" Bio-Hazard called. "Emery stop! Don't leave!"

There was no way Emery would be stopping just because Kurt's little best friend decided to get in the way. She altered her steps just a little to the left, and raced past Bio-hazard, her head searing in pain from with-holding her powers.

The shadow mentally grinned. He had done it, he'd gotten inside of her, possessing her. He turned the strangly feminine body he now controlled towards the long driveway. Wait, that was her, there in front of him. What? Who? Who was he inside? The other one. That little green haired one. He let loose a string of swear words. Now his plan was ruined. Even if he tried to switch into that girl, this one would know everything. The shadow delved into Bio-Hazard's mind, discovering everything there was to know about her. Oh. Ohhh. Perhaps this one would be of help after all. He removed the gloves she wore. Tossing them on the ground he headed off in the direction of the prison compound he was aiming for.

Wolverine arrived at the front gate just in time for the explosion. A giant ball of purple plasma expanding, destroying, and then shrinking back towards it's source. Wolverine stopped moving.

"Shit," he swore. Things had already gone wrong.

Nightcrawler heard the explosion and teleported to the front gate. Wolverine was standing there watching particles of purple floating around like cinders after a great fire. And it looked like a great fire had occurred, for dozens of feet on each side of Panther, down at the bottom of the long driveway, there was nothing. The grass and trees had been incinerated. The tarmac of the driveway was dissolved. Even the ground beneath her feet had eroded away beneath her powers. It looked like a giant bubble of destruction had carved the lower half into the surrounding ground.

"Vhere's Emery?" Kurt asked.

"Probably at the bottom of the dent she made."

"She did that?"

"Of course, who else?" Wolverine grumbled.

Kurt took off towards the hole. Wolverine leaped forward and caught his arm.

"I don't think that's a very good idea."

"What if she's hurt?" Kurt threw back at him. "Don't tell me you wouldn't for someone you cared about. I know you're reckless and stubborn. So just let me go!"

Wolverine swore again, but released Kurt's arm. "Good luck Fuzzy," he mumbled as Kurt raced away.


	18. Chapter 18: Shattered Memories

**[Author's Note: I apologize for the awkward spacing and the excessive song lyrics, but it was part of my story. It's kinda short as well (if you take the lyrics out) but I wanted to get it up. Enjoy this chapter until I get more up =). **

**~ switches point of veiws between Emery and Kurt.**

**Songs Used:**

**Breathe - Michelle Branch**

**Stand - Rascal Flatts**

**Ballad of Mona Lisa - Panic! At the Disco]**

Emery was dizzy. Oh so very dizzy. She couldn't tell which way was up nor which way was down. Her mind was buzzing like a swarm of bees were nesting inside of her head. She couldn't remember what had just happened. All she could remember was that she was running. Where? Where was she running? She couldn't remember. Oh... that's right. She wasn't running to someplace, she was running away from someplace. But, what was the place she was running from? Why was she running? Her mutant powers had to be the answer. She'd messed up again. Or rather, her mutant powers had gone cataclysmal again, dangerous for those around her, and this time, dangerous for herself as well.

She found that she couldn't move. Her body was tingling with a thousand needles on every inch of her skin. There wasn't anything she could physically do right now. So she began to sing. Singing had worked last time. It had brought all of her memories back, even the ones she hadn't wanted to remember. It couldn't hurt to try it again.

_**I've been driving for an hour**_

**_Just talkin' to the rain_**

**_You say I've been drivin' you crazy_**

**_And it's keepin' you away_**

**_So just give me one good reason_**

**_Tell me why I should stay_**

**_Cause I don't want to waste another moment_**

_**Saying things we never meant to say**_

Kurt approached the edge of the crater slowly, ensuring his own footing so he didn't end up mangled at the bottom like he was envisioning Emery. Her beautiful voice was suddenly filling the air with song. He let out a puff of air he hadn't realized he'd been holding. She was alive. If anything, she was still alive. He carefully made his way to the bottom of the crater, stepping carefully, afraid to teleport and misread his distance or his balance. He could accidentally hurt her more.

A few minutes later found Kurt kneeling beside Emery in the center of the crater. He was afraid to touch her, unsure if it would cause her more pain, if she was even in any at all. Her eyes were closed and for a minute, he just listened to her sing.

_**And I, I**_

**_Take it just a little bit_**

**_I, I_**

**_Hold my breath and count to ten_**

**_I, I've been waiting for a chance to let you in_**

**_If I just breathe_**

**_Let it fill the space between, I'll know_**

**_Everything is alright_**

**_Breathe_**

**_Every little piece of me, you'll see_**

**_Everything is alright_**

**_If I just_**

**_Breathe_**

**_Well it's all so overrated_**

**_In not saying how you feel_**

**_So you end up watching chances fade_**

**_And wonderin' what's real_**

_**And I, I**_

_**Give you**_ _**just a little time**_

_**I, I**_

_**Wonder if you realize**_

_**I, I've been waiting till I see it in your eyes**_

Emery could tell someone had come close to her. She could feel his presence. Her memories were starting to come back to her, so the person could wait.

_**If I just**_

_**Breathe**_

_**Let it fill the space between, I'll know**_

_**Everything is alright**_

_**Breathe**_

_**Every little piece of me, You'll see**_

_**Everything is alright**_

_**If I just breathe**_

_**Breathe**_

He wanted to ask her if she was okay. He wanted to ask her where she was in pain, if she was in pain. He wanted to hold her close and tell her that he was here, that he loved her. But something held him back. Seeing her so... so... sullen almost as if she was lost in herself, it made the words get stuck in his throat. When she finished singing that song, there was a moment of silence. Kurt opened his mouth to say her name, nothing but her name.

She didn't respond to him. Instead, she began to sing another song.

**_You feel like a candle_**

**_In a hurricane_**

**_Just like a picture_**

**_With a broken frame_**

**_Alone and helpless_**

**_Like you've lost your fight_**

**_But you'll be alright_**

**_You'll be alright_**

"Emery please. I'm worried about you."

She didn't care.

_**Cause when push comes to shove**_

_**You taste what you're made of**_

_**You might bend till you break**_

_**Cause it's all you can take**_

_**On your knees you look up**_

_**Decide you've had enough**_

_**You get mad**_

_**You get strong**_

_**Wipe your hands**_

_**Shake it off**_

_**Then you stand**_

_**Then you stand**_

"At least tell me if you're okay."

She was too focused on trying to sing the song.

_**Life's like a novel**_

_**With the end ripped out**_

_**The edge of a canyon**_

_**With only one way down**_

_**Take what you're given**_

_**Before it's gone**_

_**Start holdin' on**_

_**Keep holdin' on**_

"I just need to know if you're hurt, if you need medical help."

She was fine. She didn't feel any pain, so she was fine. He could leave her alone with her mind now.

_**Cause when push comes to shove**_

_**You taste what you're made of**_

_**You might bend till you break**_

_**Cause it's all you can take**_

_**On your knees you look up**_

_**Decide you've had enought**_

_**You get mad**_

_**You get strong**_

_**Wipe your hands**_

_**Shake it off**_

_**Then you stand**_

_**Then you stand**_

"If you don't tell me, I'm going to have to check myself."

She didn't really hear him. She knew what he said, but it disappeared almost instantly from her mind.

_**Every time you get up**_

_**And get back in the race**_

_**One more small piece of you**_

_**Starts to fall into place**_

"Last chance Emery. You're starting to scare me."

Last chance for what? She just needed to let the memories keep flooding back.

_**Cause when push comes to shove**_

_**You taste what you're made of**_

_**You might bend till you break**_

_**Cause it's all you can take**_

_**On your knees you look up**_

_**Decided you've had enough**_

_**You get mad**_

_**You get strong**_

_**Wipe your hands**_

_**Shake it off**_

_**Then you stand**_

Kurt sucked in a shaky breath. She was either not acknowledging him, or she couldn't hear him. He hoped it wasn't the latter.

"Emery, if you can hear me, sing in my head a little. The way you usually talk in my head."

She could do that. That was easy.

_**Then you stand**_ came floating into his brain.

He sighed in relief as she began to sing out loud again, to another song.

_**She paints her fingers with a close precision**_

_**He starts to notice empty bottle of gin**_

_**And takes a moment to assess the sin she's paid for**_

Kurt reached towards the hand laying on the ground closest to him. Gently, he picked it up and rubbed each finger. Her voice stayed steady. No pain then, he thought.

He was touching her. Why wasn't she freaking out? She should be, but he was kind of comforting.

_**A lonely speaker in a conversation**_

_**Her words are spinning through his ears again**_

_**There's nothing wrong with just a taste of what you've paid for**_

"Wiggle each finger. Can you do that for me?"

Emery heard him. He was just checking to see if she was okay. Unfortunately, she didn't know if she was okay. Nor did she know if she could move her fingers as he had asked her to do.

_**Say what you mean**_

_**Tell me I'm right**_

_**And let the sun rain down on me**_

_**Give me a sign**_

_**I wanna believe**_

Emery wiggled her fingers and he slid his hand over her arm, pressing gently. He did the same to the other arm.

Nothing hurt. He was just trying to help her, to make sure she was okay. So she let him.

_**Oh, oh, oh-oh, oh**_

_**Mona Lisa**_

_**You're guaranteed to run this town**_

_****_His hands moved to her legs.

"Bend your knees katzchen."

Katzchen... why was that so familiar? Why did she understand? She bent her knees.

_**Oh, oh, oh-oh, oh**_

_**Mona Lisa**_

_**I'd pay to see you frown**_

He pressed various points on her legs, still she didn't feel any pain. When his hands moved to her ribs, she squealed in pain and she ceased to sing.

"Verdammit," Kurt swore. "You probably re-broke your ribs katzchen. Don't move okay. I'm just going to go tell Herr Logan to get Dr. McCoy."

The guy left her side. In retrospect, she probably should have opened her eyes and took in the way he looked. Maybe she would have remembered him. He was familiar, but she still didn't even remember his name. She didn't know who this Logan and Dr. McCoy was either. She should know; she felt as if she should know, but those memories hadn't returned to her yet.


	19. Chapter 19: Be Mine

**[Author's Note: Quick reminder. Kurt = 22 and Emery = 19]**

Emery had not appreciated it when Dr. McCoy and Logan had lifted her onto the stretcher. She'd appreciated it even less when Dr. McCoy prodded at her ribs to prove that they were broken, again. The Doctor had also discovered that she had a short-term memory loss. This just meant that anything between the first time her body created an atomic light explosion, and the time just an hour or two ago, was totally wiped clean from her memory. Of course, there were a few fragments. She just was struggling to piece them together.

The first time she had done that, was senior year in high school. She'd had a particularly rough day at school and let her emotions get the best of her. There was always taunting and jabbing; there was even things that were thrown at her and mean pranks pulled on her. The reason she'd gotten worked up was that, that day, Chet had decided to join in the prick-school's fun. He'd participated in a paint and garbage throwing spree that lasted several class periods. Eventually her emotions had spiraled out of control and she had subconsciously created a bubble of plasma around her. This then continued to expand. The teacher thought quickly and pulled the fire alarm, forcing everyone to leave the school. Emery stayed in her seat, oblivious to everything around her, stuck inside her little bubble. When the bubble exploded, it took out a good chunk of the building and sent shrapnel flying. Several people were injured. Chet was one of them.

"Why don't you open your eyes Emery?" Dr. McCoy encouraged.

"I'd prefer not to."

"What are you afraid of?"

Emery didn't answer.

"Kurt and I are the only ones in here. You may not remember us, but you were very close to Kurt. In fact, it's safe to say he was the only one we were sure you trusted. You and I became close associates over the course of the last few weeks with your broken ribs in their healing process, which you will be starting all over again."

"Vhy can't I just get the Professor and have him dig up her memories?" Kurt complained.

"Perhaps, given time, she can recover them all on her own."

"It vould be faster to..."

"Yes I know," Dr. McCoy cut Kurt off. "But Emery could use some time to heal her physical wounds. Give her mental ones time to heal as well."

"I don't think I particularly want them back," Emery murmured, but both of them heard.

"Vhy not?" Kurt asked.

"It doesn't feel like there are very many good memories missing."

"That's because you can't remember them."

"No. They feel like bad memories. I don't want them."

"Then perhaps, this is fate's way of giving you a clean slate."

"I am not okay vith this!" Kurt complained. "I'm going to get the Professor."

"The procedure Kurt would like me to do involves you letting me into your brain and bringing the missing span of time to the forefront of your mind. This will not only bring back your memories and get rid of your amnesia, but it will also force you to remember everything that has happened as if you are reliving it. Is that what you want?" the Professor asked.

"No."

"Emery, please. Let the Professor."

"I don't want him in my brain. I don't think I want to remember these memories."

"Professor, can't you do it anyway? I don't want her to forget even the little things that happened... with us."

"Us?"

"Perhaps Kurt and you should have a long discussion on the series of events that has happened since we discovered you with Cerebo. Then once you have a better understanding, I will ask you again if you want your memories back. If you still do not want them, then you, Kurt, are just going to have to live with that. It is her choice. Fair?"

"Fair," Kurt grumbled.

"We will leave the two of you alone then. Come, Dr. McCoy. Let's go attend the dinner that Ororo has made for us this evening."

"Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea," Dr. McCoy agreed and the two exited the room.

"You don't remember me?" Kurt asked softly.

"No."

"Not who I am? Not my voice? Not my mind?"

"No."

"Then how about the physical me. Look at me."

"I don't want to open my eyes."

"Then look in my brain. I'll look in the mirror."

"I suppose that would be fine."

"It will be fine. You've been in my mind dozens of times before."

Kurt walked over to the mirror and looked at himself in it. Emery slid into his mind, surprisingly without any restrictions. She had been here before. She'd left all of his barriers sealed with her own seal. No one would be able to read his mind but her. She'd laid claim on this guy's brain. Why? Why had she done something like that? What about him made her want him to herself?

When she looked at him through his own eyes, she saw his eyes. His beautiful yellow cat-like eyes, a bit like her green ones.

'You are going to have to look at yourself so that I can see how you look other than your eyes,' she spoke softly in his head.

He let his eyes travel from his head, to his ears, to his teeth, down to his hands, then further to his tail, and lastly all the way down to his feet. He did so to emphasize how he was different.

She took in the sight of him. He was so familiar. So. So. Familiar. There was something about him he just could not help but thinking: mine.

'Yours?' he asked, half confused, have amused.

'I... I don't know why. Don't pay attention to impulsive, irrational thinking."

'I like the sound of that. Although, I'd prefer if it were the other way around.'

'I belong to no one.'

'So you say. So you think. But your body knows differently.'

'What are you talking about?'

'Dig through my memories. Refresh yours. See how well we got along. See how you panicked when I asked you to be my mate. See how you reacted, how you felt under me when I bit into you for the first time.'

As he thought this to her, he remembered it, and she saw it. She saw it clearly, felt it clearly as if she were him. Felt herself, and felt everything as he had.

'And you submitted. To me, easily. Our primal, animal-mutant blood kicked in and established a mating bond between us. You are mine and I am yours. Whether you want to remember it or not, I do. And I'm not about to give up on you, because you think your memories are full of bad things. Maybe they are. I don't know. I'm not you. But, this is nonsense.'

'I... I... I don't know. I...'

And that's when Kurt did it. He exposed his feelings of love for her, to her. He thought of how he felt a few hours ago when her powers exploded. He let her feel how he felt when there was a chance that the explosion had killed her. He couldn't stop the feelings from bubbling to the surface again, this time presenting themselves to her.

Emery instantly withdrew from his mind. That wasn't possible. How? Why? Someone loved her? **_Kurt_**loved her? He was her mate. She could feel it. There was a familiar sensation running through her body: a warm energy practically screaming that she was in love with him as well.

But there was no way this was possible. So there was no way she was going to let it be known.

"Emery please." Kurt sat down on the bed next to her and leaned in close. "Remember. Be Mine. Please?"

And he leaned close enough to sink his teeth into her neck, as gently as he could. And that, is when all her memories came flooding back.

**[Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! I found some free time suddenly and decided to update. The way the story is going, there will be an ending (not anytime soon) but there will also be a second addition to this story which will mostly involve Kurt and Emery and their relationship. The second addition will likely be rated M for frequent sexual interactions. So eventually when this story gets that far, if you do not want to read that part of the story, well, don't read the second addition. Kay? Kay. ^-^ This one will have an ending, so don't worry about me leaving anything out. I'll try to write again this weekend when I have free time again. Have a good night! (Or day if you're reading this during the day.)]**


	20. Chapter 20: Jealous Thing Called Love

Bitten.

She'd been bitten.

Kurt was biting her.

Kurt was biting her. She remembered him. She remembered.

She felt herself slipping into submission, her dominant personality sliding away from her. Kurt's teeth were relaxing. Logically this shouldn't be so, but she felt so relaxed.

"Kurt, this is not talking to her," the Professor said upon his entrance into the room.

Kurt jumped away from Emery, who raised a hand to her neck and opened her eyes to see the Professor.

"I see you've decided to open your eyes."

"You startled me, Professor."

"Apparently so. But, it's good to see the recognition in your eyes."

"You remember?" Kurt asked hopefully.

"Some of it."

"Me?" Kurt asked softly.

"You."

Kurt sunk back onto the bed and enveloped her in his arms.

"Kurt, Kurt, you're hurting me."

He immediately let go.

"Sorry Kätzchen."

"Back to the intentional issue," the Professor said. "Have you seen A.J.? She doesn't appear to be at the institute and I can't reach her telepathically. I was on my way to Cerebo to look for her."

"We were looking outside for Emery earlier. Do you think there's something wrong Professor?" Kurt asked.

"Hopefully A.J. is just outside of the institute's bounds still in search for Emery."

"She found me."

"Emery..." Kurt started to tell her that maybe her memories weren't entirely pieced together yet.

"No, she was yelling at me to not run away, but when my memories were completely gone, I don't think she was around."

"She wasn't," Kurt agreed. "I'm going to look for her," he said standing up.

"No, no," the Professor chided. "Stay here with Emery. There are plenty of people whom I can ask to go fetch her should she have wondered too far. I'm sure Emery would appreciate having someone with her when she can't move particularly well. I am going to check Cerebo, before you worry over something that could be nothing. So sit, calm down. Keep Emery company." And with that the Professor left the two of them alone once again.

The Professor programmed A.J.'s name into the Cerebo's input and set up a search. Cerebo located her eighty miles south, on a train that was speeding towards the New York, Pennsylvania state line. Where was she going? He flicked the button for the intercom.

"Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean, Shadowcat, Jubilee, Multiple: please prepare for a retrieval mission."

"Why is the Professor sending a six-man team to go retrieve A.J.? One person should be enough to bring her back to the institute right? There's something wrong."

"Kurt she'll be fine," Emery said annoyed.

"I'm going to go get her myself."

"The Professor didn't call you."

"So?"

"Maybe he doesn't want you to go, or maybe you can't help."

Kurt laughed sardonically. "And Jubilee can? Exploding things? Or little Jamie? On a retrieval mission? You're kidding me right?"

Emery was suddenly angered. "Kurt shut up."

"Why?"

"The Professor has a reason. Just calm down. You know what, just go to her. You won't be satisfied till you do anyway." Emery threw one of the pillows on the infirmary bed at Kurt with her mind. When he just deflected it and looked at her in confusion, she mashed up a ball of plasma in her hands, like she would pack together a snowball, and chucked it at him. He ducked under it and it made a loud, squishy smack as it hit the wall behind him. She was already packing together another one when he stood upright again. This one nailed him in the chest and flung him back against the wall.

"Ow! Emery, what are you doing?"

The third one came rocketing towards his head. He teleported to the bed, straddling her waist and pinning her wrists to the bed beside her waist. She closed her eyes. Plasma tendrils seeped out from the bed and snaked their way around Kurt's arms.

"Emery," he said softly, not trying to shy away from the tendrils. "Emery, what happened inside your head? Why are you so upset?"

Kurt didn't flinch when the tendrils spread to his torso.

In an attempt to lighten the mood Kurt jokes, "Is this your way of keeping me here?" he lightly teased. But underneath his voice was worry and confusion.

Emery opened her eyes and looked up at him. She gently pushed at his mind with her own. He surrendered to the familiar feeling of her mind sliding inside of his.

'I don't like her.'

'Her?'

'Biohazard.'

'You don't like A.J.? Em, you barely even know her.'

'I don't. Like. Her.'

'Why?'

Emery closed her eyes and pictured Kurt and A.J. together.

**_A.J. held out a gloved hand to Emery. Emery looked at her hand, not moving to take it. Kurt and the Professor watched her cautiously. When it became evident that Emery had no intention of shaking A.J.'s hand, Kurt took a step forward._**

**_"Don't vorry about it A.J.," Kurt said gently pushing her hand down. "Emery's a bit sensitive around people she doesn't know."_**

**_Bio-Hazard backed up. "She's completely crazy!" She turned and ran out of the room._**

**_Kurt started after her, but found himself restrained by one of Emery's mental tricks, unable to move forward._**

**_'You almost killed her!' he flung his words at her mentally. 'Don't stop me from going.'_**

**_Emery's ears flattened against her head; her usually active tail left unmoving._**

Emery showed him his reaction to the news Biohazard was missing. Then she showed him a fourth image.

**_Kurt enveloped A.J. in his arms, pulling her tightly against his chest and kissing the top of her forehead._**

**_"I love you A.J."_**

**_"I love you too Kurt."_**

**_And Kurt leaned in to kiss A.J._**

"Emery stop it!" Kurt said angrily, tightening his grip on her wrists. Calming his voice a little, "Emery it's not like that. She's like a little sister to me. Und that last image you made up. It isn't real. That never happened. That's never _going _to happen. I love _you_." Kurt froze, realizing what he'd said outloud. His face lit up in a bright blush and he struggled internally with what to say, or do, next. His mind faltered until it came across the idea to kiss her, and so he did. His lips caught hers in a gentle kiss. He was trying to prove to her that it was her he loved.

'I asked you to be my mate, not her,' he reminded her mentally.

Emery returned the kiss.

**[Author's Note: I finally found time to type this up. I'm trying guys, I'm trying. I'll try to get the next one up as soon as possible. Please deal with my randomness / business for a little longer. There's only 3 days until things start getting less busy. Bear with me 3]**


	21. Chapter 21: The Dark's Bright Day

The jet landed in a field just outside of Allegheny National Forest.

~

The shadow watched the guards carefully. It had only been here a few minutes, contemplating how to get inside of the building using the girl he'd picked up. She was destructive; oh so destructive. Toxins, radioactive ooze, and acid eased out from the pores on her hands quickly and effectively. The shadow found an opening along the side of the building where no one was watching. He raised Bio-hazard's hands to the wall and burned a hole though it with her acidic waste. Oh yes, she would work great. He already memorized the schematics of the building. He was a genius and had mutant abilities. Everyone that knew of him was afraid of him, so they had separated him from his body and banished his essence to another realm: one that was used as an exile realm because nothing was alive there. It was baren.

They hadn't really expected to kill him had they? There was no way an essence would die of starvation, or even boredom. It would not wither away. No, he'd had about a century to plan out how he was going to get his body back. These non-mutant people were stupid, ignorant, and illogical. They'd chosen to cryogenically freeze his body instead of burning it. He would've burnt it if he was in their position. He'd be able to come back if they kept him. Maybe they thought they'd be able to completely kill him next time.

The shadow burned through another wall. They hadn't seen him yet? Well, her. Or did they just not have anyone willing to take on a little girl. He laughed, Bio-hazard's voice ringing out through the halls.

In the process of burning through a third hole, clamor and chaos began. Sirens, flashing lights, and the sound of running feet could be heard.

There's the attention he was waiting for.

'Let's see what this girl can do,' he thought. Bubbles of green, radioactive ooze formed on her skin, slipping out of every pore. Bio-hazard's clothes burned off and the floor beneath her feet began to dissolve.

Seven armed men came around the corner, weapons ready, bodies covered in a resiliant, high-grade armor.

"Halt, mutant!" one commanded

The shadow laughed again, letting the guards hear Bio-hazard's voice.

"Make me," Bio-hazard's voice floated out into the air.

Guns fired; bullets of various kinds went flying towards Bio-hazard. Each one disitigrated on contact with her skin. He didn't even flinch. Sure, the girl would have some bruises later, but they'd heal. He didn't really care anyway. Maybe he'd care if she chose to join him after he got his body back, but he highly doubted that she would. No one ever liked his ideas. No one ever really liked him either, but that was okay, he was going to destroy everything and everyone that got in his way.

The ooze beneath her feet finally ate enough of the floor that it began to bend under her weight. The last thing the men saw was a grin creeping across her face as she sunk through the floor and into the basement. Gunshots ricocheted behind her, but the shadow just pushed her body forward to the centere of the building, where the cryogenics were stored.

The guard at the door never saw Bio-hazard coming. Her hand reached out, on the shadow's command, and grabbed his arm. The ooze burned through his armer and seared through his skin. He screamed in pain and passed out on the floor from pain overload.

Menawhile:

"If you would just let us in, I promise we can stop her from doing whatever she is here to do," the Professor told the commander of defense for the building.

"You don't have authorization to enter this facility."

"But my team can help. We've dealt with this girl before. Why would you put your people's lives on the line when you can simply let us in to deal with it."

"Alright fine, but if your mutants get out of line, we'll have to take you all out. And trust me, as much as we don't want to resort to those forces, we have them."

"Understood," the Professor said and hug up the phone. "Access granted," the Professor spoke into the headset.

"Get us there Charles," Wolverine responded.

Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean, Jubilee, Multiple, and Shadowcat stormed into the building, racing towards the point where Bio-hazard was via the Professor's instructions.

The team arrived at the cryogenics room to find Bio-hazard laying on the floor, a man standing over her. He grinned a creepy smile.

"This isn't possible. There's not a chance he's still kickin'," Wolverine growled.

"Who is he?" Shadowcat asked.

"He's..."


	22. Chapter 22: Wipe Out

"Marcus. Marcus Preed, the Shadow, at your service," the man said.

Mulitple, Shadowcat, and Jubilee burst out laughing.

"That's, like, such a nerdy name," Shadowcat giggled.

Marcus steamed, his pride and ego wounded. Wolverine stepped in front of the younger x-men, but a grin broke out on his face.

"What's the matter Marcus? Can't take a few laughs at your expense?" Wolverine grinned.

The Shadow's figure began to darken.

"On your guard half-pints," Wolverine growled.

The three of them lost their smiles, dropping into a fighting stance. Cyclops and Jean prepared themselves to attack the Shadow, whose laugh rang out in the enclosed space.

"Wolverine, I'm disappointed in you. You brought such an ill-prepared team to confront me. What happened to that lovely woman you brought last time. You know, the one that got the upperhand of me." At the sight of Wolverine's face Marcus laughed again, "She's dead! Of course, it's been well beyond her lifetime now hasn't it. So why," he said floating up into the air surrounded by a black cloud, "are you still here? And looking young I might add."

Wolverine growled at him. "I haven't aged in years."

"I noticed."

"Wolverine, what's going on?" Cyclops asked.

"No time to explain. Multiple, get Biohazard. Cyclops, Shadowcat, left. Jean, Jubilee, right. We are putting Marcus here back into the freezer."

Back at the Institute:

"You love me?" Emery asked.

"I do, und I really believe you are my mate, that I am yours."

"I don't know anything about that mating stuff."

"Your intuition knows katzchen."

They sat in silence for a while, watching the other's eyes.

Breaking the silence, Kurt said softly, "You never did answer my question, Em."

"Ask it again."

Kurt smiled. "Will you be mine?"

Emery blushed an looked away temporarily. When her eyes found their way back to his, she answered him.

"I will."

"You will?" Kurt breathed a sigh of relief.

Emery nodded.

Kurt's lips found hers in a passionate kiss. He wanted her to know just how much he appreciated her agreeing to be his. This meant no one would ever be able to take her from him. Genau? Right?

'Right,' her voice whispered in his brain.

His lips curved up into a smile against her lips.

Multiple fell back behind the other five, as they waited for the shadow to attack. And he did. He disposed of each of them fairly quickly. He threw a wave of shadow at them. Wolverine dropped to the floor and out of the way. Multiple followed suit. Jean put up a shield around her and Jubilee. Shadowcat snatched Cyclops' hand and faded them out. Unfortunately for the two of them, the wave interfered with her mutant power and instead of passing through them, it traveled through their body like an electric shock. They were down for the count.

"Scott!" Jean called, but it was no use. He'd been knocked unconsious.

Jean's shout drew the Shadow's attention to her. He grinned.

Jean's shadow, cast on the floor from the glow of the blue lights in the room. rose off the ground. It encased her in a tight, binding hold and choked the air out of her. She passed out unconscious on the floor.

This angered Jubilee. She threw energy ball after energy ball at the Shadow, Multiple used this distraction to run around the Shadow and kneel beside Bio-hazard. Jubilee's energy explosions were of no use. The Shadow's body was encased in a dark shadowy essence that absorbed each and every one. The energy he absorbed built into a giant mass of darkness. When Jubilee realized that she was feeding the Shadow the energy he was using, she stopped. But it was already too late. The Shadow pushed the mass at her. She had no where to go. It exploded on contact with her body and sent her flying into the wall behind her. Who knows whether it was the blast or the impact of the wall that knocked her out, but she was no longer conscious.

Wolverine growled. "Enough of this Marcus, pick on someone your own age."

Marcus just laughed. And as he laughed, sound waves of a dark pressure radiated from him. When it reached both Wolverine and Multiple, the two of them clutched at their ears, trying to block it out. to no avail. The sound weakened them. Wolverine, ears far more sensitive than Multiple's, collapsed first. He was grumbling about no one being able to do anything and Marcus getting to have his messed up fun. Multiple followed shortly, falling to the floor beside Bio-hazard. He inched forwards and clasped her hand in his. That's as far as he got before the dark sound wave knocked him unconscious.

The Shadow was so happy. He'd finally gotten his body back. That girl, Emma Frost, from way back when had died, likely from old age. He was free, and there was no one that could get in his way. He was smiling as he exited the building. Then he remembered, there was one girl that probably could stop him. The one with the tail and ears. What was her name again? Emelia? No. Emily? No... but that kind of sounded right. Oh! It had to be Emery. She seemed like she would pose a problem. He'd have to go back to the Institute and pay her a visit. Maybe he could talk her into joining him. Or at least find out what she was capable of so he knew how to defend himself from her attacks.

The Professor lost contact with the six person team he'd sent to retrieve Bio-hazard. He'd felt a sudden surge of mutant power, but he had no idea where it came from. He picked up the phone and dialed Gambit's cellphone. He had a feeling he would need every experienced mutant on this one. Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean, Shadowcat, and even the two younger x-men were not to be taken lightly. If they were all out of commission, as well as Bio-hazard, well, there was something terribly wrong going on here.

"W'at's up, Professor," Gambit's cajun drawl floated over the phone.

"I need you and Rogue to return to the Institute as soon as possible. We have a problem."

"What kind of problem?"

"One that was able to put, Bio-hazard, Shadowcat, Cyclops, Jean, Jubilee, Wolverine, and Multiple out of commission. They're all still alive, but none of them are conscious."

"Well, sh't," Gambit swore.

"What's wrong Remy?" Rogue's voice was heard in the background.

"A whole bunch of us got knocked down for the count today. The Professor wants us back at the 'Nstitute as soon as we can get there."

"Leave it to them to get a mess brewin' when I'm not there," Rogue growled, starting to pack up their suitcases.

"We're on our way Professor," Remy told him.

"Yes, make haste."

The Professor hung up the phone. What on earth was going on here?


	23. Chapter 23: Sparkle

Rogue and Gambit took the first plane towards home.

"So what do you think happened?" Rogue asked.

"I'm not sure de Professer knows hisself. He sounded a bit confused to me."

"Guess we'll just have to find out. Do ya think the lot of them are okay?"

"Ah'd say so." At Rogue's I'm-not-sure look he continued, "They'll be fine chere; they're tough."

"Ah hope you're right."

The Professor traversed down to the infirmary in order to get Kurt. Emery would have to sit this one out, but it would have been a great way to test her teamwork and control. Although, he wasn't sure she had control over herself.

As he approached the infirmary, he realized he couldn't sense Emery nor Kurt. Please don't be something wrong here too, the Professor thought.

He opened the door to find Kurt straddling over Emery, lips interlocked. The air was buzzing with snowflake sized heart-shaped light.

"Ehem," he cleared his throat to get their attention. Neither one of them heard him; the light particles acted as a mental block and a sound barrier. He picked up an eraser off of the Beast's desk by the door and threw it at Kurt. Normally he would've just let them continue, as it was in fact none of his business. However, he needed Kurt's attention.

Kurt jumped, seperating the two sets of lips. The red sparkles faded from the air.

"Kurt. Emery." Kurt jumped off the bed, face flushed. The Professer returned the eraser to the desk with his mind. "Do I have your attention now?"

"Yes, sir," Kurt agreed.

Emery nodded.

"Good, now, something went wrong with the retrieval and I need every active x-man on a recovery. That means you, Kurt."

"What happened?!" Kurt asked, worried.

"I am not sure, but Bio-hazard and the team I sent to retrieve her are all unconscious."

"Another mutant?" Kurt asked.

"Either that or the government officials at the facility Bio-hazard went to. However, I cannot see government people being able to take down a team of us, especially when it is composed of the ones it is."

"When are we leaving?"

"As soon as Gambit and Rogue return, as well as I gather the rest of the team."

"Can't you just use the intercom?"

"I'd like to reduce the amount of panic between the youngsters. We have time until those two return; I will go gather everyone." The Professor started to leave. "Oh and Emery, don't block me out. I will need to contact Kurt in some way. I'd prefer it if you did not prevent that again." The Professor left.

Emery was confused. She'd blocked the Professor? Mentally or more?

Kurt started to follow the Professor.

"Kurt?"

He turned to look at her.

"Will you bring me a communicator and a book?"

"Sure, Em." He turned to leave again.

"And Kurt," she called.

"Yes Em?"

"Come home safe."

Kurt turned around and looked at her for a minute, eyes locked with hers. He made his way back to her side and kissed her again.

"I will," he whispered before he exited the room.

The Shadow was long gone from the facility. Marcus was euphoric. He'd finally gotten his body back: his very own! Thanks to the stupid facility personnel who decided to preserve it for him. How nice of them to help him against their intentions.

He was on his way back to the Institute. Marcus needed to pay that Emery girl a visit. He wondered what she would be like to fight against, how powerful she actually was, how broad her mental powers reached.

He decided it was going to be well worth it to figure that out.


	24. Chapter 24: Retrieving and Misplacing

**[Author's Note: ********X-Men Characters In This Chapter: Gambit (Remy), Rogue (Marie), Nightcrawler (Kurt), Iceman (Bobby), Magma (Amara), Beast (Dr. McCoy), Storm (Ororo), Professor X (Charles Xavier), Wolverine (Logan), Shadowcat (Kitty), Phoenix (Jean), Cyclops (Scott), Boom-Boom (Tabitha), Multiple (Jamie), Jubilee, StormFireGirl's character Bio-hazard (A.J.), and of course my characters Panther (Emery) and the Shadow (Marcus Preed)]**

Amara and Bobby were lounging in their seats in the Professor's small back-up jet. The Professor said he'd never had to fly it before, but since Wolverine took the first team in the jet, the back-up jet was their fastest option. Kurt was pacing impatiently, waiting for Rogue and Gambit to arrive. Their team wasn't smaller than the first, no, they had a couple more people. The difference this time was that overall, more people were more experienced with fighting. Not to mention that instead of one person to rescue, there were now seven.

Beast came bounding into the jet.

"Who else is the Professor choosing to come with us?" Bobby asked.

"He didn't say," Dr. McCoy responded.

"Just us I believe," Ororo said strutting into the jet, Tabitha behind her. Bobby's attention immediately drifted to Ororo's thighs. "And I suggest Robert, that you keep your eyes to respectful places," she added. Amara giggled and Bobby's face lit up in a blush as he looked at the ground in front of his chair.

"Any news from Rogue and Gambit?" Dr. McCoy asked.

"They should be here in about five minutes and then we can get this party started," Tabitha responded.

"Wonderful, I will prep the jet for take off then."

Emery sat reading the book Kurt had brought her. She was waiting for someone to say something over the communicator, but there was no sound coming from it at all. She guessed she would just have to be patient.

The Shadow was thrilled to have his body back. He hitched a ride on a train heading back in the direction of the Xavier Institute where he had found Emery. No one saw him catch a ride, and no one saw him take his seat. He just blended into the shadows of the cabin and looked like nothing more than part of the train.

"Remy," Rogue said, as Gambit sped towards the Institute.

"Yes cherie?"

"Promise me you'll be careful?"

"As long as chu promise the same thing."

They shared a comfortable silence, knowing that while both would try to be safe, both would never make a promise they couldn't keep."

They pulled into the driveway of the mansion shortly afterwards, speeding their way into the parking garage. They hopped out of the vehicle and made hast to the loading dock.

"Great to see you back!" Beast called to Gambit and Rogue from the cockpit.

"Where are we headed?" Gambit called strapping Rogue into her seat.

"Ah can do it myself!" Rogue complained.

"Allegheny National Forest, West Pennsylvania. Communicators are now online."

Gambit strapped himself down into the seat.

"Strap in! Take off is in 10!," Beast called back.

Storm and Tabitha strapped themselves in.

"9!"

The door to outside opened up, and the Professor came wheeling in.

"Door closing! 7!" Beast called.

Amara and Bobby spun around in their seats and pulled their seat-belts on.

"6!"

The Professor wheeled himself over to his wheel lock.

"5!"

The locks clicked on and held the Professor's wheelchair in place.

"4!"

The engines flared.

"3!"

"Kurt sit down!" Bobby yelled.

"2!"

Kurt teleported to his seat and clicked his seat-belt into place.

"1!"

The plane ejected from it's port and sped towards Pennsylvania.

Emery turned the page on her book. She'd heard the take off, heard Bobby yell at Kurt, but she hadn't heard Kurt's voice. She was worried about him. He was hers. He was hers wasn't he. She smiled a little. She had a bad feeling about them leaving though.

Jet number two touched down next to the first one a half hour later. The rescue team disembarked and the Professor followed behind them. They followed the Professor's directions to the place where their x-men comrades were passed out on the floor.

"Wow," Tabitha breathed. "A.J. went crazy in here."

They walked by the injured guard. Storm stopped to check for a pulse.

"He's still alive. Where is the government's rescue?" No one answered her.

Then they entered the cryogenics storage room. There was no trace of anything, no damage to anything. The only sign anything had happened in this room was the seven bodies laying on the floor and an empty cryo-container.

Gambit threw Wolverine over his shoulder. "Well let's get 'em out of here."

"Gambit be careful! They could be injured."

"None of them are injured. It wasn't Bio-Hazard that they faced," the Professor noticed. "They're all just comatose."

"Like ah said, let's get 'em out of here."

"Let us think rationally," Storm said. "There are only four beds a jet. Gambit, Rogue, Beast and Boom-Boom will take four of them to the jet that was left here. Magma, Iceman, Nightcrawler, and I will take the other three to the jet we came in."

"Well ah've got Wolverine, chere grab Jean there."

"Ah'm on it," she said picking up Jean with ease.

Beast picked up Cyclops and Boom-Boom scooped up Shadowcat.

"We're all ready to go!" Boom-Boom said.

"Yes, head on back to the Institute and help Beast set up the infirmory," the Professor said, using his telekinesis to raise each pair of people up through the hole in the ceiling.

"Aww look Jamie's holding A.J.'s hand!" Magma giggled.

Iceman knelt on one knee and grasped Magma's hand. "Oh don't let go, I'll protect you from this harsh emotional world!" he exclaimed over-dramatically. Magma laughed and drew her hand away before reaching down to pick up Bio-Hazard, but butterflies sparked in her stomach. Nightcrawler scooped Bio-Hazard out of Magma's hands and teleported to the jet. Iceman threw Multiple over his shoulder and followed Magma, who had picked Jubilee up, over to the Professor and then out of the facility.

"Who is this Marcus Preed? And where did he go?" Storm asked the Professor on their way out of the facility.

"I don't know, but Wolverine does. By the sounds of him though, we're going to need all the help we can get. This is not an adversary to take lightly."

During their excursion to retrieve their friends, the Shadow had arrived at the Institute. This would be easier than he thought, he realized when he noticed a good chunk of the x-men were not present. He fazed through a bottom floor window. He chuckled. None of the sensors went off. God he was good at this. He followed his senses until he reached an open door to the infirmary. And there she was, sitting on the bed and reading of all things. He could hear her fellow x-men talking through a communication device, but they weren't here. They wouldn't be able to help her. He glided over to her bedside and snatched the book out of her hands.

"Hello," he purred.

Emery pulled a bubble of plasma around her. "Who are you?"

"My name is Marcus Preed. But you can call me Shadow."

"Are you an x-man?"

"No, honey, I'm not."

"What are you doing here?" Emery started pushing her bubble outwards.

"Why, I'm here for you." He grinned his crazy grin and reached through her bubble. Before she was able to do anything, he grasped her head in his hands and sent a dark pulse through the contact. Instantly, she was unconscious. He scooped her up into his arms.

"Sorry honey, but I don't have time to fight you here, and you appear to be injured. I will just have to nurse you back to health and then see what you're capable of."

And with that said, he left the building the same way he entered, taking Emery with him.


	25. Chapter 25: We're All Just Human

**[Author's Note: ****X-Men Characters In This Chapter: Nightcrawler (Kurt), Professor X (Charles Xavier), and of course my characters Panther (Emery) and the Shadow (Marcus Preed)]**

Emery woke to find herself laying in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room, and who knows where this room really was. Feeling a pressure on her neck, she raised a hand to her neck. Someone had put a collar on her, and that collar was chained to something. She looked above her head from her laying position. It was chained to the bed. She sat up cautiously, expecting that man, Marcus he'd said his name was, to be there. And there he was, sitting in a chair with his elbows on his kness and his head drooping down.

Emery tried to create her little plasma balls that she was so comfortable using, but nothing came. A soft 'hmph' of frustration and confusion escaped her.

The noise attracted Marcus' attention.

"You can't use your mutant ability so long as that collar is on you."

"Then take it off me."

"Sorry, love, I can't do that. You'll just try to fight me right now, or try to escape, and I can't have either."

Emery processed this information as she shifted slightly to get more comfortable.

"Does it hurt?" his voice floated softly to her ears.

"What?"

"Your ribs, do they hurt?"

Emery moved around and tested her ribs, as she had done every morning since they'd been broken. She didn't feel a thing.

"No, I... I can't feel any pain."

Marcus let out a sigh of relief. "Good," he said looking up at her. "Then my healing worked. I hadn't expected it to. I haven't tried to heal someone in..." he let his sentence drop off and lowered his eyes back down to the floor.

"Why am I here?" Emery asked.

"You're here, love, because you are strong, and I want to fight with you on even ground."

"You want to fight me? Look, I can't even control my powers yet. They're very unpredictable. They hurt people and endanger their lives. Why on earth would you want to be the center of that?"

"I can help you."

"Aren't you supposed to be the bad guy?"

"I really can help you Emery. Your powers, while different from mine, I can help you control them. That's all I'm offering. You help me by fighting me. I help you by training you to control your powers. We both get stronger."

"What if I don't want to take your offer?"

"Then I will have to resort to unconventional means to get what I want. I can possess people, bend them to my will. I'm not such a good guy Emery. Don't think I won't hurt you or the ones you care about to get what I want."

Marcus stood up and left the room.

Well, that was odd, Emery thought. She pulled at the collar. There had to be some way to get this thing off her neck.

"Wir müssen sie finden! Vhy can't du sense her?!" Kurt's voice rose at the Professor. The Professor set the Cerebo helmet down on it's pedestal. He'd just finished using it to search for Emery's mutant marker, but either she wasn't using her powers, or something was blocking him from seeing them.

"Kurt, you need to calm down. Panicking, and getting stressed over this is not going to help anyone, nor is it going to find Emery. Now you know Cerebo doesn't pick up on mutants until they use their powers."

"But es stores deren signatur. Ve already haben Emery's!"

"Yes, but there must be something blocking her from accessing her powers, and if she can't access them, neither can we find her mark on Cerebo."

"Du meinst sie ist poverless?!" Kurt exclaimed. All the air seemed to exit his body. "Vhat if sie gets hurt?"

His tension escaped him and he was overwhelmed with a sudden sense of helplessness, hopelessness, uselessness. Kurt flopped down onto the floor, and stared at the ceiling. He took a couple deep breaths. The Professor had once, a few years ago, treated him for being so easily riled up. He'd thought he'd had a hold on that, but the thought of Emery being gone in any way... it scared him. And right now, there really wasn't anything he could do to help her. His outbursts, might-as-well call them what they are, were just getting in the way. He needed to calm down. Somehow, laying flat on the floor, or rooftop, and staring at either the ceiling or the sky, always seemed to relax him enough to straighten his thoughts out.

The Professor let him lay there for a few minutes before speaking up again.

"We will think of something. In the meantime, why don't you go downstairs and get something to eat. You must be hungry after everything that has happened today." Kurt started to protest but the Professor continued, "You may not feel like you want to eat; you may not want to do anything but find her, but you need something in your stomach. What if you have to fight to get her back here? Are you really going to run off so little energy and rely on your teammates to get her for you. Of course not, you're going to throw yourself right into the middle of everything as you usually do around her. So why don't you go downstairs and eat something?"

Kurt stared up at the Professor, upside-down, from his spot on the floor. There really was no arguing with the Professor. Though, he had expected a more analytical, mathematical, or scientific reason. This spiel of the Professor's was far too... human. Not that the Professor wasn't human, it was just that... well... it was almost as if the Professor was thinking with his heart and not his head.

Kurt teleported down to the kitchen ceiling, falling the rest of the way to the floor and landing on his feet. He really was hungry... and worried. How could he not be worried? Half the X-men were out of commission and now Emery was missing. They knew the most likely answer was that Marcus had her, but they had no way of finding Marcus any more than they had a way to find Emery. He hoped Marcus wasn't hurting her.

Emery stared down at the plate Marcus had set in front of her.

"What did you do to the food?"

Marcus sighed. "I didn't do anything to the food. I meant it when I said I needed you to get better. Why would I do anything to the food if I want you to heal?"

"Because you're evil. And I thought you already healed me."

"You still need your strength. And I'm not always evil: only when I have to be."

Emery watched him leave again. Jeez... he was kind of a depressing, evil captor wasn't he?

She picked up the fork and dug into the spaghetti he'd prepared for her. She was surprised at how delicious it tasted.

When she finished eating, she set the plates on the stand beside the bed and picked up the video game he'd left for her. Something to amuse her time until she was tired enough to sleep. It was Pokemon. She smiled; she hadn't played Pokemon in years. As long as she was stuck here, and she knew she was stuck here, she might-as-well go along with his plans. Yes, she'd already, subconsciously, and now consciously, accepted Marcus' offer. Best case scenio, Emery would get control over her powers, defeat Marcus, and return to the X-men, and to Kurt. Kurt... she wondered if he was okay. He was probably worried sick about her.

She selected Charmander as her starter Pokemon and began her long journey into falling asleep.


	26. Chapter 26: Planning

**[Author's Note: ****X-Men characters in this chapter: Storm (Ororo), Professor X (Charles Xavier), Rogue (Marie), Gambit (Remy), Phoenix (Jean), Boom-Boom (Tabitha), Iceman (Bobby), Magma (Amara), Beast (Hank McCoy), Nightcrawler (Kurt) and of course my characters Panther (Emery) and the Shadow (Marcus).**

**I'm sorry I'm such a slow poke with writing and stuff... I have every intention of finishing this story though.]**

Marcus waited until Emery fell asleep to retrieve the dishes from her. He dumped them in the kitchen sink and returned to the living room where he had monitors upon monitors set up. He had at least a hundred that he'd collected before he got separated from his body.

The Professor was in the Cerebo room with Ororo, Rogue, and Gambit.

"Anyone have any bright ideas on how we're going t' find her?" Rogue asked.

"If this Marcus Preed does have her, we can only assume that Logan is the one that would know how," Ororo responded.

"What did Hank say?" the Professor asked.

"He said they were all hit pretty hard with some sort of mojo," Gambit spilled. "But, A.J. was just exhausted."

"He means she collapsed from exhaustion," Rogue corrected.

"And the others?" The Professor asked.

"Scott and Katherine had their nerve-endings shocked, as if electrocuted. They should be alright with a few days of rest. Jean was squeezed until she passed out from lack of oxygen. She's already awake. Hank is running a check up as we speak," Ororo reported.

"Good," the Professor commented.

Rogue continued: "Jubilee has a lot of bruises. It looks like someone tossed her around like a rag doll. Dr. McCoy said the impacts likely caused her to lose consciousness. She's going to be out of it for a while. Logan and Jamie, well can't find anything. It looks like they just passed out. He said something about a pressure change, but he's not sure how that is possible."

"Thank you for relaying the information to me."

"Not a problem" "You're welcome" the girls responded together. Gambit just nodded.

"Ororo, would you kindly make supper for those of us who are able to eat?" the Professor asked.

"Of course Charles."

She exited the room.

"How are you feeling?" Dr. McCoy asked Jean.

"I have quite the headache, and my ribs hurt a little, but other than that I feel fine. Are the others okay?"

"You're the first one awake."

"Oh."

"I need to run a few tests. Procedure, you know?"

"I understand."

"Then afterwards, we're going to go up and eat dinner. I'm sure everyone would like to hear about what happened out there today."

Jean looked at the ground.

"There wasn't anything any of us could do. He was just so... powerful. I've never seen anything like it before."

Marcus had all of his computers going. He was sitting on the floor in front of them all, running search after search, digging in every computerized database he could find. There were so much more than there had been. It seemed, everyone from his time was dead. He hadn't found any trace of the person he was looking for though. Either he died and was forgotten, or he was alive still and had disappeared off the electronic grid.

He'd been gone far too long. Everyone was dead. How was Wolverine still alive? He didn't want to kill Logan.

Marcus slammed his hand against the floor. He closed his eyes to calm himself. It wasn't fair. Someone had to pay for his loss. Someone had to die.

The computer made an alerting noise. Marcus looked up and scanned for the computer screen that had made the sound. One computer had no motion on it. That one. He stood up and stared at it. Oh. Oh, he smirked wryly. Fate was on his side. He shouldn't have doubted it. If _Wolverine_ was still alive, of course **_he_** was.

Marcus began laughing. How perfect! He'd get his revenge after all.

Dr. McCoy, Tabitha, Bobby, Amara, Kurt, Jean, the Professor, Rogue, Gambit, and Storm sat around the kitchen table in that respective order. Jean was at the head of the table, with Kurt and the Professor next to her. They made a u-shaped entourage, instead of their usual full oval.

Jean stared down at her plate. It was saddening to think about. Scott, her, and the others had been completely helpless. They hadn't stood a chance.

"I don't know much about what happened," she started talking. She knew everyone was listening, and watching. She had given the Professor permission to project her memory into her allies minds. They'd have to fight this Marcus Preed at some point. Every piece of information was useful, right? "There was a guard outside who was down outside the room. In the room, A.J. was passed out on the floor behind Marcus. Scott and Kitty took the left flank. Jubilee and I covered the right. Jamie was behind Logan in the center. Logan told him to get A.J."

She paused to take a sip of water.

"Marcus sent some sort of dark, electric wave at us. I pulled up a shield. Logan and Jamie ducked. I thought Kitty had phased her and Scott out, but the wave hit them both. In an instant they were down. I.. I yelled. It drew his attention to me. He used his powers to wrap something dark around me, and squeezed, and squeezed..."

She stopped. She didn't know what happened next. She'd been unconscious.

"You slid unconscious," the Professor finished for her.

Jean nodded.

"It's okay," the Professor tried to comfort her. "Thank you for sharing. It may not seem like much, but it gives us a little more information about who we're dealing with."

"Emery," Kurt murmured.

"What was that Kurt?" the Professor asked.

"Emery," he said louder.

"What about her?" Jean asked.

"Did he remind you of Emery? Her powers I mean?"

Everyone that knew Emery stopped to think.

Amara asked, "She's the new girl right?"

"Yeah," Bobby answered.

"You know, I think you're right Kurt," the Professor said after a moment. "They seem to have a similar mutant power."

"How does this help us?" Tabitha asked.

"I think it's time to pay a visit to the people that we rescued Emery from, don't you think Kurt?"

"Absolutely."


	27. Chapter 27: Interrogation

**[Author's Note: ****X-Men Characters in this Chapter: Nightcralwer (Kurt), Professor X (Charles Xavier), Rogue (Marie), Gambit (Remy), and the return of my character Bad Guy 1 (with the mention of Bad Guy 2).**

**I'll give them names this time I promise.]**

The Professor had set up a mind link between Cerebo and Kurt. This way Kurt, who was the one that could teleport into the prison where the two men were held, could communicate with the Professor and whomever was in the room with the Professor. Kurt didn't much care about who could see into his mind right at this moment. All he wanted was to find out everything these _idioten_ knew about Emery. Thanks to the map that the Professor X was able to attain, Kurt was able to teleport into the exact cell that the first guy was in.

He arrived with a poof of sulfur-smelling smoke in the corner of cell 483.

"Henry Falenjer."

Henry yelped in a conglomeration of fear and surprise. "Who's there?" he called out shakily.

"Now why would someone without mutant powers get locked inside a solitary confinement cell?" Kurt cooed almost wickedly.

"Who are you? How did you get in here?"

"That doesn't matter. You need to answer questions for me. If you answer them, I won't hurt you."

"W-What?"

"First question. Do you remember the girl that you kidnapped and got you put in here?"

"I-I..."

"Henry, just answer the question," Kurt sighed.

"I remember her."

"Good. Now: Where did you and your partner find her?"

"She was already curled up on the bed. Ricky and I just tied her up."

"Richard Harly?" Henry didn't respond. "Was it Richard Harly?" Kurt asked more firmly.

"Yes! Yes, it was him," Henry said panicky.

"Why are you and Richard in solitary confinement?"

"Because Ricky's a mutie!"

"Did you know that?"

"No, he was always so gung-ho about catching and selling muties I just assumed he hated them."

"Who were you planning on selling Emery to?"

"Who's Emery?"

"The girl, Henry! The girl with the cat ears and the tail."

"She... we.. why does that matter?"

"Answer my question!" Kurt steamed.

"Kurt you need to calm down," the Professor said into the Cerebo communicator. Sure, he was gathering some information. But what they really wanted to know, was how they as a non-organized duo captured those with mutant abilities.

"How's he doin'?" Rogue asked the Professor.

"He's worried about Emery."

"Of course he is. We all are."

"Yes, but he loves her and it's affecting how he's functioning. I still believe Kurt is the best one for this interrogation."

"Ya sure Professor?"

"I'm sure."

"How do you capture mutants?"

"We use dispelling bands."

"What are those?"

"They're collars or cuffs or other things that send off mutant-neutralizing impulses. They make mutants unable to use their powers and then we just handle them like we would people."

"So mutants aren't people?" The Professor was in his head again telling him to relax. "Never mind. Where do you get these bands from?"

"There's a physicist that created them. He makes them all and sells them to the top bidder. We got ahold of one and the pay was so good after we were able to by more."

"And now I kill you," Kurt said in a flat voice. He wasn't going to actually do it. He just wanted to scare the guy.

"No! No, please. The guy's name is Dr. Luxemberg. You can find him in the research center on the east side of town."

Nightcrawler teleported out of the cell, leaving the smell of sulfur behind.

Gambit was waiting in the car outside the prison. Kurt hopped in the passenger seat and Gambit took off towards the Institute.

"Did we get what we needed?"

"Ja."

**[Author's Note: ****idioten = morons]**


	28. Chapter 28: Collision

**[Author's Note: ****X-Men Characters in this Chapter: Nightcrawler (Kurt), Gambit (Remy), Rogue (Marie), Beast (Hank McCoy), Stormfiregirl's character Bio-hazard (A.J.), and of course my characters the Shadow (Marcus) and Panther (Emery).]**

****By the time Nightcrawler and Gambit returned to the Institute, Bio-hazard had awoken. Dr. McCoy was putting A.J. through a routine check-up.

"I'm fine!" she complained.

"Under your tongue," Dr. McCoy countered, holding the thermometer up to her eye level.

"A.J. please, listen to Herr McCoy," Kurt urged from his seat beside his best friend.

A.J. sighed and opened her mouth so Dr. McCoy could put the thermometer beneath her tongue. After a minute, Dr. McCoy checked the temperature.

"Temperature is normal."

"So can I go now?" A.J. asked indigently.

"Yes, yes. You seem to be just fine. I'll let the Professor know what you remember about what happened. Why don't you go get some nutrients into your system."

"You mean food."

Dr. McCoy and Kurt both rolled their eyes. They were used to this with A.J..

"Come on A.J. let's go get you food. Everyone else has already eaten. If you eat, Herr McCoy will clear you to help me find Emery."

The two of them started out of the room.

"Whoa. Hold up. Emery is missing?"

Kurt snatched her arm and gently forced her to keep walking.

"Ja. We got back from rescuing you und the others, und she vas gone."

"Are you sure she just didn't run away?"

Kurt whirled on A.J., "Sie didn't just run avay!"

When A.J. started to tear up, Kurt's angry expression softened.

"A.J., I'm sorry."

A.J. yanked her arm away from Kurt's hand, and he let her. She stared at him a second longer and pushed past him to make her way up to the kitchen. Kurt watched her go. What was wrong with him? He'd just hurt his best friend's feelings. His emotions were all over the place, and they shouldn't be like this. He should be calm and planning on how to get Emery back. He shouldn't be taking his anxiousness out on his friends, especially when they were trying their best to help him find Emery. He just needed to stop freaking out. He just felt so out of sorts. He teleported into the cerebo room, where Rogue had taken over the Professor's position of using the computer aspect of cerebo to search for Emery's mutant-id. It didn't look like she was having much walked over and sat on the floor beside the chair. Rogue looked down at him and he rested his head on her thigh.

"We'll find her, Kurt."

"What if we don't? What's he doing to her? What if he's already killed her?"

"Kurt. First of all: she's strong. She can handle herself. Second: we will _find_ her."

"I hope you're right," Kurt whispered closing his eyes trying to calm the panic rising in his chest.

Emery woke to find Marcus watching her sleep.

"That's not creepy at all," she said out loud.

"We're going to start training. Come on," he said and walked out the door.

Emery found that he'd unshackled her in her sleep. He was such a creeper. She rose and followed him out the door and through hallways until they reached a gym. Why he had a gymnasium in his house she had no idea.

"Um. Aren't you going to take this off me?" she asked, pulling at the collar. If he took it off her, maybe she'd have a chance of escaping.

"Not yet. You lack hand-to-hand combat skills."

"I don't need hand-to-hand combat skills. I could kill you with my brain before you even got close enough to me for me to need to know that stuff."

"I got close to you."

Emery blinked. He was right.

"And right now," he said in a sultry voice, stepping closer to her, "you're powerless."

Emery was looking up at his face, which was inches from his own. She blushed but held her ground.

"And what exactly are _your_ powers?"

"Mental, just like yours. I prefer dealing with computers, but like you I dabble in the dark."

"What are you talking about?" Emery took a step back.

"Your dark purple plasma and such that you use." He took a step forward.

"How do you know I use that?" She took a step back.

"I watched you."

"And that's not creepy at all," she said sarcastically.

"You've been hurt. You've seen people die. In fact, you've probably killed yourself and if you haven't you will."

"Plasma isn't dark, you just use it for bad things." She took another step backwards, towards the door they had entered through. She was almost near it, she'd been counting. Marcus followed, closing the distance between them and pushing her softly against the wall. She'd miscalculated the location of the door. Marcus's hands were on either side of her, trapping her there between him and the wall.

"What have I done that's so bad? Hmm little miss?" Marcus cooed into her ear.

Emery shivered. She had to compose herself to respond. "Hurt the x-men. Kidnapped me. Whatever you did before you were sent into that other realm."

"I was _sent_ into that other realm, as you called it, because I was grieving. And no one, _no one_, understood. They just saw me losing control and took me out of the picture."

"Why were you grieving?"

Marcus took a step back all of a sudden.

"It's not important."

"You lost someone you loved," Emery stated.

Marcus didn't respond, nor would he look at her.

"Why did you kidnap me?"

He looked up. "You have raw talent. I want to use that talent to take my revenge."

"What revenge exactly?"

"Enough questions," Marcus snapped. He snatched her wrist.

"Ow," she complained. He ignored her and pulled her into the middle of the room.

"We're going to start training now. The more you learn the less you'll get hurt."

She had just enough time to say "What?" before he dropped into a fighting stance and swung his leg around in a roundhouse kick. It hit her in the back of the leg and she fell to that knee, her hands on her other to support herself.

"What the hell was that for?!"

His hand came down and grabbed her throat. It didn't hurt; it didn't make it hard for her to breathe. No it wasn't that kind of grip, but it did pose the problem of him lifting her back up to her feet like a rag doll.

"Break out of my grip. Your enemies aren't going to be this nice. They're going to squeeze until you're unconscious, and then maybe they'll keep on squeezing until you're dead. Break my grip."

She tugged at his hand, trying to pull it away from her neck, but he just held on tighter.

After two minutes of her just yanking and scratching at his hand, she gave up.

"Now that's disheartening. Don't give up little miss. Try using your arms to bear down on mine. Hit as hard as you can; force my arm down away from your neck. My hand will follow."

Emery was furious with him for doing this to her, for kidnapping her, for touching her. She did what he'd said, using her anger as a motivation. When his hand was forced away from her neck, she gasped and rubbed her throat.

"Good. Next time though, try not to get angry. You'll lose control of yourself and the situation if you get angry."

"Stop playing Yoda!"

"What would you rather I do? Let you go?"

"Yes!"

"So that someday you'll get yourself or someone else killed? I don't think so."

Emery screamed in frustration. "Why do you care what happens to me?!"

"Because you're _just like _me!" he said exasperated.

"You don't know anything about me!"

"I know everything about you. I've been inside every nook and cranny of your brain."

Emery took several steps back. "You're lying."

"I did it while you were sleeping. I figured you wouldn't notice with the collar on to neutralize your powers, and I was right. I know all about you, and your past. We have a lot more in common than you think. And believe it or not, as terrible as you see me as, I wasn't always this way. The world made me this cold. Just like it made you cold."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yeah? Well let me know when you get your little spark of warmth torn right out of your chest again, just like Chet did three years ago."

Emery stepped closer to him and slapped him across the face.

"There! That emotion! The darkness you just accessed!" Marcus grinned. "That's exactly what I'm talking about. When there's nothing left of your life except that feeling, you'll understand where I'm coming from."

She glared at him.

"Come on then, let me teach you how to fight."

Emery dropped into the fighting stance she'd seen him do just minutes ago.

"Good! Good! That's right!"

And then he attacked.

**[Author's Note: Whatcha think?]**


	29. Chapter 29: The Physicist's Daughter

**[Author's Note: ****X-men Characters in this Chapter: Nightcrawler (Kurt), Storm (Ororo), Professor X (Charles), Rogue (Marie), and of course my characters Panther (Emery) and the Shadow (Marcus)]**

Emery was obliterated. There was simply no other word to describe the utter exhaustion and the pulsing pain protruding from every nerve point in her pathetic physical body. Marcus was right. She had no physical means to fight if it came down to that. She'd spent all of her time trying to control her mentality that she hadn't even considered what would happen if she lost the ability to use it. Hell, she hadn't even considered it possible for her _to_ lose it.

He'd instructed her for hours. How to stand. Where to hit. How to hit. Not to leave herself open. That last one was the worst. Every time she left herself open, he would land a roundhouse or a backhand to that spot. He gave her no opportunity for error, and her errors cost her. He'd let her take a bath afterwards, and by time she'd finished scrubbing off the sweat he had food cooked and set out on the table. It was fish.

Where was he getting all of this food? Was there a store nearby? Or did he just stockpile? Either way, she was thankful for this small blessing.

"There's four different kinds of tea on the counter. The water in the teapot is already hot, so help yourself. You're just going to feel worse tomorrow, but we have to work through your body's resistance to motion."

Emery made herself mint tea. She didn't understand why, but for some reason, she was comfortable around Marcus. Okay, so maybe comfortable wasn't the right word, but she knew he wasn't going to kill her, and he treated her decently. If you didn't count the collar, which was probably for his own protection, and him forcing her to fight, nor the kidnapping her.

"So, if I agree to continue training until you think I am capable of fighting, will you tell me your story?"

Marcus looked up from his plate.

"I don't have a story."

"Sure you do," Emery said taking a seat across from him. "Everyone does."

"You mean talk about my life, and why it's so fucked up? No thanks. I'm good keeping it to myself."

"Let's start with your age. How old are you?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Look, you've already pried into my brain. You apparently have gathered every little piece of me that you wanted to know about. The least you can do is answer some of my questions."

"You're not ready for some of the answers to the questions you want to ask."

"You're playing Yoda again."

"Would you rather I lie to you?"

"Who says you haven't lied to me right from the start?"

"Now who's playing Yoda."

Emery glared at him.

"Don't you understand? I'm the _bad guy_."

"Well you're a sucky bad guy then."

Marcus scoffed and returned to eating his food. Emery let it slide and focused on her own plate.

A few minutes later Marcus spoke up.

"I'm twenty-four, but I was an essence for fifty years in that other realm. You brought me back from there when you tore yourself away from there and back to this realm."

"Why did you hurt the x-men?"

"They were in my way."

"Will you hurt me if I get in your way?"

"Yes."

Emery sat there thinking.

"What is it that you're trying to do?" she asked suddenly.

"Why do you want to know that badly? I'm training you aren't I?"

"Because it's important. And why are you training me?"

"Someone has to benefit from all the knowledge I've obtained."

"In your twenty-four years?"

"In my seventy-four years."

"But you were an essence."

"Essences are just as capable of doing abnormal things as human mutants are."

"So why me?"

"I told you; you're just like me."

"There has to be something ve can do to find her," Kurt complained. "Sitting around vatching the monitor and vaiting for her to use her powers is just..."

"Kurt," Rogue chastisted.

"I know, but..."

"Why don't ya go downstairs and help Ororo prepare?"

"The Professor isn't letting me go on this mission."

"That doesn't mean you can't make yourself useful. Especially if you're so restless."

"Fine, fine."

There wasn't much for Kurt to do, but Ororo recognized his restlessness and set him to menial tasks to occupy his time. She and the Professor would be going to see the physisist that created the dispelling bands to talk to him. Their goal was to find out everything he knew about them and about Marcus Preed.

When the two of them arrived at the laboratory across town, the physisit was thrilled to let them in. He'd heard about Professor Xavior's more productive scientific works and was pleased to make his aquaintance. He assumed Ororo was his wife. Neither one of them told him any differently. They knew they were treading on shaky ground.

"What can you tell us about these mutant dispelling bands?" the Professor asked after formalities were over.

"My greatest invention. It will allow mutants who do wrong to be incorperated into the justice system without the prison guards fearing for their lives."

"You think all mutants will end up in prison?"

"They'll use their powers to do something against the law at some point. If they want to be treated equally so badly then they should be on equal footng with us."

"An understandable point of view," Ororo commented.

"So how do they work?"

"The bands send out elecrical pulses that short circuit only the mutant genes within a mutant. The genes that are human remain unaffected. Took me twenty years to isolate that frequency."

"It is a remarkable feat," the Professor commented.

"Why thank you. Am I to assume you are here to purchase one?"

"Yes actually. If you wouldn't mind, I would like to buy quite a few. How many do you have ready right now?"

"Spectacular! I have ten made up. I just finished the last one this morning."

"We'll take them all."

Kurt found A.J. in her bedroom.

"Hey."

"Hey."

"I'm sorry."

"I know; you're worried. And I know you want to believe Emery is being held against her will, but what if she's not? You have to look at every possibility so the truth doesn't surprise you."

"That was pretty deep for you," Kurt teased.

"You know I'm right."

"Oh, one more thing before we go," the Professor said, turning back around from his path to the door. "Do you know anyone by the name of Marcus Preed?"

The physicist nodded. "I know the bastard."

"What can you tell me about him?"

"He's the mutant that got my daughter killed, fifty years ago. He's why I started my research in the first place."

"Do you know what happened to him?"

"I heard they couldn't kill him, so they banished his essence to another realm far far away, heard that his body was frozen too."

"It was. Where was his home when he was alive?"

"He lived over a town or two. Small area. Cabin-like houses. Off the beaten road. Pine Drive I believe the name of the street was."

"Thank you."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Oh, just digging up records. Have a good day!" Ororo called as the two of them left the labortory.

**[Author's Note: ****Can you guess which X-men was the one that Marcus lost and is seeking revenge for? (And as far as I know, this has nothing to do with the actual Marvel storylines. So don't look there, because I doubt you'll find the answer, the character, but not the answer).]**


	30. Chapter 30: Pine Drive

**[Author's Note: ****X-men Characters in this Chapter: Nightcrawler (Kurt), Professor X (Charles Xavier), Storm (Ororo), Beast (Dr. McCoy), Rogue (Marie), Gambit (Remy), Iceman (Bobby), Magma (Amara), plus StormFireGirl's character Bio-hazard (A.J.), and of course my characters the Shadow (Marcus Preed) and Panther (Emery).]**

The Professor had called Beast, on their way back to the mansion. Beast rounded up Rogue, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Magma, and Bio-hazard. They were the only ones healthy enough, that were also trained for field work, in the mansion currently. Although the Professor would have preferred Bio-hazard get a little more rest before she went out in the field again, he couldn't deny that having her destructive capabilities against this particular enemy would be helpful.

When they arrived at Pine Drive, they were ready for the worst. There was only nine of them, and each of them held a dispelling band. Arriving at the cabin had been an accomplishment. Marcus appeared outside and they instantly dropped into their fighting stances. They threw everything that had at him that they could throw from long distance: Bio-hazard's toxin, Remy's explosive cards, Storm's lightning, Magma's lava, and Iceman even chipped in with shards of ice. Beast and Nightcrawler waited for the dust to clear. Marcus was standing there with a frown on his face when it did, particles of plasma circling around him.

"You really should learn to stay out of things X-men."

"Where's Emery?" Nightcrawler yelled.

"Inside."

Kurt, intending to go into the house, tried to teleport. Marcus had him on his knees before he could finish the thought. His ears were ringing, his head searing in pain. His teammates were all on the ground rolling in pain. After what felt like hours, but was really only a few seconds, the ringing stopped. This was exactly what Emery did. He looked up at Marcus.

"You aren't going anywhere. None of you can beat me. None of you can stop me. What makes you think that you can come to my home and attack me? What makes you think you can take someone like her from someone like me?"

"Give her back," Kurt demanded.

"She doesn't want to go back, especially to someone like you. You'll hurt her."

"I would never... !" Kurt started.

"Lies."

'Kurt hush,' the Professor said mentally.

"Marcus," the Professor called. "What do you want Emery for?"

"That's none of your business X-man."

"Is she okay?" the Professor asked.

"She's fine."

"Can we have some sort of reassurance that she's fine?"

"You can have my word."

"Can we see her?"

"No. You can die."

Marcus raised his hand towards the group of X-men, helplessly standing there. They knew this enemy was powerful and they knew there wasn't anything within their powers that they could do to stop him.

"No! Marcus don't!" Emery yelled, jumping in front of Marcus.

Marcus twisted his powers upwards, just barely missing Emery, and because of its new direction it missed everyone else too. He glared at her.

"Don't. Hurt. Them," she commanded.

Kurt teleported towards Emery. Maybe he could get her out of there.

Too fast for anyone to see, Marcus and Emery disappeared in a sea of plasma. Kurt landed on the plasma, slipped and fell backwards. He stared at the seared trees above him; there was hardly anything left of them.

"Get up," Gambit drawled, pulling Kurt to his feet. "We still have a mission to complete."

"We were useless. We didn't get anything accomplished. We can't hit him. The Professor can't get into his brain. We're not going to win."

"Ya don't know tha'," Gambit argued.

"Yes I do."

"No ya don't," Rogue said.

"He's just like her."

"What?" Amara asked.

"Marcus is just like Emery. They have the same powers."

"Well the Professor said you managed to stop Emery, so why don't you tell us how and we'll have a good chance at stopping him."

"I don't think that's going to work."

"Why not?"

"Because..." Kurt looked away and blushed a little. "I bite her."

"Figures she'd like that," Bobby grumbled. "She's such a freak," he mumbled under his breath. Amara smacked him upside the head.

"Rude much," she commented.

"It's nicht... like that..." Kurt blushed.

"Look at them. Just standing there on my property. And you like that one? With the blue everywhere? What on earth can you like about him? You can't possibly have a family with him; is it even genetically possible?"

"Is it genetically possible for me to have kids with anyone?" she snapped at him. "Look at me. I have a tail for crying out loud!"

"I didn't... mean to offend you. I don't have anything against mutants really. I just... they took someone important away from me."

"So you'll take someone important away from someone else?"

"You can go back to him after you help me."

"And you won't hurt me or them?"

"You have my word."

"And what is your word worth?"

He didn't answer her, so she returned her gaze to Kurt outside the house.

"He's blushing. What are they talking about?"

"You."

"Me?" Emery started, a blush forming on her face. "What about me?"

"Says he bites you."

Her blush grew.

"Does he?"

"You already know the answer to that," she glared at him.

"True."

"You're right," Amara said. "That's not going to help us get Emery back."

"If he's just like Emery, then he can hear every word we're saying, and every thought we're thinking. Emery is a mind reader, amongst other things," the Professor added.

"Is there anything we can do?" Rogue asked.

"They're probably just inside the house," Beast said.

Bobby started throwing ice at the house.

"That little shit," Marcus swore. "I'll kill him."

"No!" Emery yanked on his arm. "If you kill one of them, they won't have any mercy on you."

Marcus laughed. "You think they can hurt me?"

"I'll kill you myself."

He stopped laughing. He grabbed her by the throat and pushed her up against the wall. She grunted in surprise, but thrust her arms upwards, breaking his grip from her neck. She ducked and rolled to the side and came up with a knife at his throat. Marcus laughed.

"Well done! Well done little kitty." He melted the knife, turning it into plasmic goo. He spun her around him and pressed her back against the wall. "So close. But I still win."

"Oh get off me," she rolled her eyes.

He took a step back. "Go out there and tell them to go away. If you can make them go away, and you return back to me, then I won't kill them."

She glared at him.

Kurt watched Emery walk out of the house. They all did. He was so relieved to see her, he almost let his guard down. Almost. But he noticed the collar around her neck. Her powers: she wasn't able to use them at all. She really was helpless.

"You need to go back to the mansion."

Kurt couldn't believe his ears. She wanted him to go away? "I'm not leaving without you."

"Kurt go away!" she commanded, taking a step back. "All of you. Just go back to the mansion before he kills you!" Kurt stepped closer to her. "Go. Back."

"But Em."

"He is going to kill each and every one of you if you don't leave his property right now."

"What about you Emery?" the Professor asked. "What is he going to do to you?"

"I'm fine. This is my choice. I'm staying here. Go away. All of you."

She turned and walked back into Marcus' house.

Gambit snatched Kurt up. "Let's go. You heard her."

"Yes I believe it is in our best interest to regroup. Maybe we can come back once the others have woken up," the Professor said.

"They're gone."

"Good girl."

"Now will you tell me what the hell I'm here for?" she snapped angrily.

"You're going to help me kill the person who took my special someone away from me."

"Wouldn't that person already be dead?"

"No. He's still alive, and his name is Sabertooth."

**[Let me know what you think! I'm incredibly slow at getting them up here as I'm sure you've noticed.]**


	31. Chapter 31: Hanging in the Balance

**[Author's Note: lol I had no idea what to name this chapter so I just threw something out there.**

**X-men Characters in this chapter: Nightcrawler (Kurt), Wolverine (Logan), Multiple (Jamie), also StormFireGirl's character Bio-hazard (A.J.), and of course my characters the Shadow (Marcus) and Panther (Emery)]**

"Kurt it's been three days, get off the floor and go in the shower. This isn't going to help get her back."

"A.J., I can't eat. I can't sleep. Why would I shower?"

"Because I'm sure Emery would prefer that when you do rescue her, and you will rescue her, that you don't smell like shit when you do."

Kurt groaned and rolled over.

"The Professor doesn't have anything. He doesn't know how to get her away from him. She didn't even look like she wanted to be rescued."

"Dude, she jumped in between Marcus' powers and us. She was trying to protect us. No. She was trying to protect you. She told everyone to go away so that Marcus wouldn't kill us. Now get off your lazy ass and get in the shower. She's probably waiting for you."

"Ve vere utterly useless. Ve didn't even fight him! Didn't even try to get her. The second she was alone ve just left."

"Because she said to."

"She was promised no one would hurt her, and that ve vouldn't let anyone else hurt her if ve could help it either."

"She didn't look hurt to me. I think she's capable of handling herself. Marcus must want her for something, and as long as there's something he wants, he's not going to hurt her."

"When did you start sounding like the Professor?"

"When you stopped showering."

"Fine fine," Kurt groaned. "I'll go in de shower."

Emery and Marcus were in the gym again, fighting hand to hand.

A missed punch here, a roundhouse kick there: they locked together and fell, rolling and tumbling trying to land a hit on each other. Marcus pinned her beneath him.

"You're getting better."

"And you're getting off me."

Marcus chuckled but got off of her, offering a hand to help her up. She didn't take it, instead she kicked the side of his knee and pounced on him, her hand around his throat and her knee pressing into his groin. He grunted from the impact.

"Smart girl," he groaned. "You learn fucking fast too."

Emery just stared at him. "Take this off me."

"No."

"Yes." She applied pressure to both places. "You gave your word you're not going to hurt me; I give you my word that I'll help you get revenge, but you have to take this off me first."

"It's too soon. You need to master your body before you can master your mind, and your mind before you can help me."

"I work better with my mind in full operation."

"I.." He grunted when Emery pressed her knee down further. "Damn you."

"I should have told you. Professor Xavior had me training in the Danger Room for a few months before you kidnapped me. I actually do have some fighting skills. Most however, are from my mind. Although, you should've already known that."

Marcus carefully reached his hand up to her throat.

"You'll regret asking me to do this so soon." A wave of purple electricity shot through the collar around her neck and prickled her skin. She watched it fall off her neck. She immediately backed off of Marcus and kept going until she was pressed back against the wall. She clutched her head in pain. Marcus stood up and walked towards her.

"Emery, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have taken it off you. Please let me put it back on. I know you don't have complete control over your powers but I can help you."

Her powers came out in a shock wave. Marcus held up his hand, and his own little bubble of plasma encircled him. Her shock wave was absorbed into it.

"Emery. Goddammit," he swore when plasma spikes cascaded from around her. He dodged a few and destroyed the rest with his own dark purple plasma.

Slowly, he made his way over to her as he avoided wave after wave of various forms of her mental powers. He placed his finger on her forehead and she collapsed into his arms. He sighed. She was powerful; he had to give her that. He lifted her bridle-style and carried her into the bedroom he'd given her for her stay here. He placed her gently on the bed and tucked her in.

"Why do you have to be so much like me?" he whispered.

"Feel better?" A.J. asked Kurt.

"Ja."

"I have good news for you. At least, I think it's good news."

"So tell me."

"Emery's powers came back on in Cerebo."

"She can fight now?"

"Probably."

"We're going back! Right now," he said rushing out of the room. A.J. followed behind him.

"To what? Get killed?"

"I'm going to get her back right now."

"Are you crazy?"

"Are you coming or not?"

A.J. sighed. "At least take Wolverine with you. He's pissed as hell since he woke up two days ago and he's looking for a fight."

"You just want an excuse to go see Jamie down in the infirmary."

A.J. blushed, "I do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Just go get them. I'll get the car running."

"He's going to what?" Logan asked.

"Go get Emery from Marcus."

Wolverine sighed, "Fuzzy you're going to get yourself killed."

"She has her powers back."

"What makes you think she's going to use them against Marcus?"

"I think Kurt's banking on her choosing him over Marcus."

"Let's go before he goes on his own and gets himself killed. I owe Marcus a good slashing anyway."

"Can I come?" Jamie asked.

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Logan said.

"Please Logan?" A.J. asked.

"Fine, but you stick to A.J. here like glue got it?"

"Yes sir!" Jamie winked at A.J., who blushed.

"Then let's get out of here before the Professor stops us," Wolverine commanded, heading towards the door.

**[Night guys! Hope you like the new sections of story that I got up today!**

**Oh and I would like to answer a question that a Guest left for me:**

**No I did not know there was an actual character named Bio-hazard. I am borrowing StormFireGirl's Bio-hazard for this story and am basing it off of her character. Also, I did not use ShadowCat / Kitty as Kurt's best friend in this story because of the direction my plot line is in. I ship Kitty and Kurt sometimes and for the sake of Panther in this story I have chosen to give Kitty a minor role so I don't confuse my own brain and therefore my story line and my readers.**

**Thanks for the question. I would have replied directly, but I cannot reply to Guests, only those that have an account here.]**


	32. Chapter 32: Triple C

**[Author's Note: oops I have one more in this bunch, now though I really am going to go to sleep.**

**X-men Characters in this chapter: Sabertooth (), Wolverine (Logan), Nightcrawler (Kurt), Multiple (Jamie), StormFireGirl's character Bio-hazard (A.J.), and of course my characters Marcus Preed, and Panther (Emery)**

**PS - Triple C stands for Confrontation, Conflict, and Confusion]**

****Halfway down the driveway to the cabin, Wolverine was sniffing the air. He growled and slammed on the breaks. Before the others could react, he was out of the vehicle and racing towards the woods.

"Where does he think he's going?" Multiple asked.

"No clue," Bio-hazard responded.

"He's here! He's here! No, no, no, no. This is too soon. She's not ready. She isn't ready."

Panther came stumbling into the kitchen, one hand on her forehead.

"I don't feel so good."

Marcus looked at her. 'Shit, I forgot to put the collar back on her,' he thought. "Emery, why don't you sit down?"

"Nn." She let him guide her to a seat at the table. He began to rub at her neck. She began to purr. He used his powers to levitate the collar off of the counter and within his grasp. As quickly as he could, he moved to refasten the collar around her neck. He wasn't fast enough. Emery expanded a bubble from her body instantaneously, knocking him backwards, and sending the collar tumbling across the floor. He caught himself mid fall and dispelled her bubble. She turned to look at him.

"Why would you even try such a thing?" she glared at him. "I can hear you," she said standing up. "I can feel you. In fact, I know exactly what your plans are for me. I won't be part of them. I won't be a part of anyone's plans: never again."

"Emery."

"No!" A whip of plasma shot out and nailed him in the chest. "I know I'm dangerous! I know I don't have much control over my powers, but you cannot use me to bait another person, you cannot use me to murder another person: regardless of the amount of wrong-doings a person has done. You cannot use me at all!" She shot goo at him, some of which he dodged, some of which clamped onto his clothes and skin.

"We should follow him. Maybe he decided just to go the rest of the way on foot to get more of a surprise on Marcus," Multiple suggested.

"Good idea Jamie, let's go," Bio-hazard said getting out of the car, Multiple and Nightcrawler not far behind her. They snuck quickly up the rest of the drive and stuttered to a stop when they reached the yard. Wolverine and Sabertooth were rolling around, teeth bared and fists swinging.

"Vhat is _he_ doing here?" Kurt complained, confused.

"What are we going to do? I was kinda banking on Wolverine to distract Marcus since he's the one that knows Marcus best," Bio-hazard mumbled. "With him focused on Sabertooth, how do you expect us to beat Marcus?"

"Vith Emery's help."

The three of them snuck over to the cabin and peaked in through the front window. When Kurt's eyes landed on Emery and Marcus fighting each other he called out her name.

Emery pulled the collar with her mental powers and flung it at Marcus. Marcus pushed back. The collar floated shakily between the two of them as their powers clashed.

"Emery!" they heard from outside. It was Kurt. Kurt was outside. He was here. No. No, no, no. He'd get hurt. Marcus' powers began bowing to hers as her pressed harder. The collar inched closer to Marcus' neck. Marcus flung out a disc of plasma at the window where the voice came from. In doing so he lost focus and the collar moved within a foot of his neck. 'Shit,' he swore mentally.

"You. Will. Not. Harm. Him," Emery forced out as she pushed against Marcus' powers. All of her focus was back on Marcus, and all of his was back on her. Their minds became locked together, emotions and memories floating back and forth between them.

Nightcrawler and the others watched in awe as Emery slowly inched the dispelling collar towards Marcus' neck. If she could just get that around his neck, they would be able to rescue Emery and deal with Marcus really easily. He wanted her to come home.

Marcus was losing the struggle; he could feel it. He'd absolutely underestimated her ability. Even if she wasn't able to control it as well as he could control his, hers was still more powerful it seemed. There was only one thing left for him to do to twist things back into his favor. He shot a tiny little spark into her brain. He had just enough time to get the spark where he needed it to go before he lost control.

After an intense struggle, one which was invisible except for the purple sparks flying around the room, the collar snapped around Marcus' teleported into the room without a second of hesitation and punched Marcus in the face. Almost immediately following the punch, Nightcrawler's left hand was gripping Marcus' throat.

"Vhy did you take her und vhat did you do to her?"

Marcus' crossed arms and tightened fists flew upward in one swift motion, knocking Nightcrawler's hand away from his throat. Marcus tucked and rolled to the side before spinning and bolting for the exit. Panther raised her hand and the doorway suddenly had an invisible wall there, recognizable only by it's faint purple glow. Kurt teleported to the doorway, causing both he and Marcus to run face first into Panther's invisible wall.

"Ow! Em!" Kurt complained.

"Sorry," she said, but she wasn't. The wall of plasma peeled down and wrapped itself around Marcus, who struggled greatly, but ultimately failed . He was cocooned in plasma, deprived of all his mental abilities and most of his motor functions.

"That seemed way too easy," Bio-hazard said, coming into the house through the door. Multiple followed in her footsteps.

"Hey don't knock it," Multiple said. "Something'll go wrong if you do."

Nightcrawler teleported Marcus back to the vehicle and waited until Bio-hazard and Multiple arrived.

"Where's Emery?"

"Uh," Bio-hazard shifted uncomfortably. "She said she's not coming back to the mansion."

"Vhat?" Nightcrawler asked confused.

"She said she had to go somewhere first."

Marcus laughed.

Nightcrawler smacked him upside the head. "Vhat is so funny?"

"You will never be able to control her you know. She will never even learn to love you."

"What nonsense are you spouting now?" Bio-hazard asked rudely.

"She's a loner. She will always _be_ a loner. Did you know everyone in her high-school shunned her after she developed her mutant abilities and physical attributes? Did you know that she's still in love with her first and only boyfriend?"

"I'm her boyfriend," Nightcrawler growled.

"Not in her mind. In her mind, she's still head over heels about Chet, her high-school sweetheart. At least until he betrayed her and left her all alone in that school. She's dark inside. All she wants is for Chet to tell her he's sorry and that he'll never leave her on her own again."

"You don't know vhat you're talking about."

Marcus laughed again. "I've been in her mind. I know every inch of her past, as well as all the emotions and thoughts that go along with it. I know what's happened between you and her and I know what's happened between her and Chet. And let me tell you, he got a _lot_ farther than you."

Bio-hazard slapped duct tape over Marcus' mouth. He laughed quietly to himself.

"Don't listen to a word he says Kurt. He's just trying to rile you up."

"But vhat if it's true."

"Go talk to Emery before she leaves his house. I'll go get Wolverine, if he's still here... Jamie you stay here and watch him. In fact, Logan's got some rope in the back, why don't you tie him up nice and tight, just in case Emery's thingy disappears."

"Sounds like a plan," Multiple winked at her. She blushed a little before exiting the vehicle.

When Kurt teleported back to the house, Emery was just leaving.

"Vhere are you planning on going?" he asked softly.

She stopped in her tracks. Slowly, she lifted her head up and looked at Kurt.

"There is someone I need to pay a visit to."

"Chet?"

Emery's eyes widened in surprise, for he had actually guessed who she was planning on going to see. She sat down on the step she was standing on.

"Yes, Kurt. I'm going to see Chet."

"Vhy?"

"It's just something I have to do."

Kurt tried to take steps towards her but she held up her hand.

"Please Kurt, don't come any closer. A lot of things have happened within my brain in the last several weeks and I need both time and space to straighten things out."

"Vill you come back?"

"I don't have anywhere else to go."

"Vould you come back if you did?"

"I don't know."

They stayed there in silence for a few minutes, both of their eyes on the ground.

"Do you love him?" Kurt asked softly.

"Yes."

Kurt's heart clenched. So Marcus had been telling the truth?

"Did you... did you ever...?"

"He was my boyfriend back when I was a normal teenager Kurt."

"That doesn't mean you..."

"But I did. Frequently."

Kurt frowned. At least she was being brutally honest with him.

"Is that vhy you feel like you love him?"

"Love isn't something you can reason with, Kurt."

"But you love him."

"I told you I did."

"Then vhy did you let me believe you vere interested in me?"

"Because I am."

"You can't love both of us."

"I know!" she exclaimed, frustrated. She stood up and started walking away.

"Em, please, don't go."

"_Don't_ call me Em," she turned around to fling her words at him. She continued to walk away.

"I love you! And I still vill vhen you are ready to come home," he called after her.

She stopped once again, long enough to turn and look at him.

"I know. But I have to go."

**[Author's Note: Don't hate me! *hides* I have a really good reason for doing this.]**


	33. Chapter 33: Heartache is a Lonely Road

Emery kept walking until she found a road with cars passing by. She used her mind to convince a driver that he wanted to pull over and see her more closely. She then used her powers to knock him unconscious and put him in the backseat of the car.

She wasn't utterly heartless.

She took the driver's seat and programmed the GPS in the car to Chet's home address. It told her the trip would take about two hours. That was fine by her.

Kurt had returned to the vehicle empty handed and sullen.

"Where's the kitten?" Wolverine asked from the driver's seat.

"Gone."

"What do you mean gone?" Wolverine asked with a slight growl to his voice.

"I mean, she's gone. She walked away and might never come back."

'Shit,' Wolverine thought. 'The Professor ain't going to be happy to hear this bit of news.'

They drove back to the mansion in silence. Multiple and Bio-hazard watching Marcus. Sure enough, Emery's restraints had faded away. It was a good thing they had tied him up with rope too. Wolverine didn't speed for once, and Nightcrawler just stared solemnly out the window. They had completed their mission. Emery was free. But they hadn't accounted for the possibility that Emery didn't want to go back to the mansion. A.J. had been right, Kurt realized, as an emotional pain shot through him. Emery hadn't needed to be rescued. She hadn't _wanted_ to be rescued.

They arrived back at their home two hours and fifteen minutes later. Logan heaved Marcus over his shoulder and said he was heading off to see the Professor. A.J. and Jamie climbed out of the car after Kurt, unsure of what to say since there wasn't anything they could do. A.J. took Kurt's hand to get his attention.

"She'll come back," A.J. told him. Kurt just stared at her blankly. "She will," she insisted before letting Jamie coax her away and into the mansion.

"Ich bin mir nicht sicher," he whispered to himself before teleporting to his bedroom.

Emery parked the car in the school parking lot. The guy would wake up later to find himself fine, and all of his possessions still there.

Emery headed off in the direction of Chet's house. It was about a ten minute walk from their old high school, and she had walked there enough times to have the path memorized. It was even ingrained into her muscle memory; she didn't need to think much about where she was headed.

His house was white panels, with a grey tin roof. The flower beds held a multitude of colorful blossoms. Emery walked around back and cast her mind up into Chet's bedroom.

'Die, die, die, die, die, die, die,' she heard Chet's mind. So he was playing video games. She figured he would still be at home. She climbed up the tree in the backyard. This is how she'd snuck into Chet's room in high school. She was at Chet's window within a minute, her powers aiding the movements of her hands and feet through their familiar processes. She eased the window open and gracefully swung herself into the room, landing in a crouch with a soft thump. Chet looked up in surprise as she rose to a standing position.

"Emery!" he gasped in surprise.

"Hello Chet," she said, anger ever so lightly slipping into her voice.

The controller in his hand fell to the floor as he stood up to face her. Emery used her powers to lock his bedroom door.

"What are you doing here?"

"Are your parents home?"

"Y... yes. Why?"

She cast her mind out around the house. "You're lying. Why would you lie to me Chet? Are you afraid of me?"

"I'm not scared."

"Of me."

"Of you."

"Then why would you lie to me. I thought you trusted me completely, you know, before your betrayal."

Chet looked down. "I shouldn't have said those things to you."

"But you did."

"I was scared. You grew a tail and ears right in front of me!"

"And fangs," she opened her mouth to point. "And claws," she extended them so he could see.

"I've thought a lot about it... and I'm fine with it now. It's kinda cute in a kinky kind of way," he said softly. Emery's ears twitched. Chet had always been more interested in the physical side of the relationship. He wasn't a player or solely focused, but it had been important to him.

"Thought I was just a mutie and not worth your time anymore."

"Em, I didn't mean it."

"You meant it all senior year."

"I didn't know what to do."

"So you fell into step with everyone else that hated me?"

"They were my friends."

"And you said you loved me. That I meant more to you than _anything. _Obviously that didn't apply if I was a mutant."

"Em..."

"No. Shut up. You can't act like we're familiar with each other anymore. I'm completely different. You don't know me."

"I can get to know you again... if you'll give me the chance."

She turned her head away so she wouldn't have to look at him. Unfortunately, this brought her gaze to his bed. She'd spent many, many nights there, pressed beneath him. She blushed a little at the thought. He was actually a very attentive lover. She closed her eyes. What was she thinking? This was not why she came here.

"Emery," Chet called softly.

"What," she snapped angry at herself for letting her thoughts stray to that part of her past.

"Why did you come here?"

"To straighten things out."

"What?"

"You said something to me in the hospital..."

"I did?"

"You said... that you really did love me."

"Because I do."

"But then you continued to act like I didn't exist! And I didn't really have much control over the mind reading thing! So I couldn't just hop into your mind and tell if you're telling the truth, like I've been doing tonight. So it's been nagging me. I actually believed you when you said you loved me, the entire time we were dating! And then you went and said something so unbelievably harsh to me, hateful words towards a mutant who just went through becoming one and didn't know what the fuck happened to her, and you just spat out all those painful words! Then you confused me with your half-conscious words of love and..." Chet cut her frantic rant off with a kiss. Her body responded to his familiar-ness before she had a chance to react. It relaxed as he wrapped his arms around her, and deepened the kiss. His hands stroked her back, something that she'd always enjoyed. She started to get lost in the feeling.

One of his hands strayed down to the base of her spine, where her tail protruded from her, and he rubbed the spot gently. She moaned softly, her head starting to spin in pleasure, and pressed closer to him. He moved his mouth down to her neck and continued kissing. She was waiting for him to bite her. She wanted his little fangs piercing into her skin, claiming her as his, like he had several times before. He didn't bite her; he returned to her lips. She opened her eyes and probed her mind out to find out why Kurt wasn't really acting like Kurt. Her body froze and her mind pushed him away, hard.

She looked down at Chet sprawled on the floor. He sat up on his elbows.

"Since when could you do that?"

"I have some mental mutations along with my physical ones," she said flatly and turned to leave.

"Why are you leaving?"

"This isn't what I wanted to happen."

"What did you want to happen?"

She turned back to look at him. "I came to end things for good. I don't like unfinished business."

"What?"

"I'm falling in love with someone else, someone... better. Than you. I just wanted to make sure things were done between us, so I can move on."

"So you're not going to give me a chance to make up for the things I said and did?"

"No. Goodbye Chet."

"Am I ever going to see you again?"

"I don't know Chet, but I'm going back to my _mutant_ friends who accepted me from the start." 'Even if I've been a bit crazy towards them...' she added mentally.

"And this guy you're _falling_ for... he's a mutant too?"

"Yup."

"And I can't change your mind?"

"Nope."

"I really am sorry."

"I know. Goodbye Chet."

"Bye..."

She turned and climbed out the window, swung down and dropped to the ground. Then she headed to the park.

Ich bin mir nicht sicher = I'm not sure


	34. Chapter 34: Ready to Return

The Professor answered the phone in his office at ten o'clock that night.

"Hello, Charles Xavier speaking, can I help you?"

"Professor? It's Emery..."

"Emery, good to hear your voice. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I just, I'm ready to come home... and I don't exactly have a way to do that. Would you send someone to come get me?"

"Of course. I'll send Kurt..."

"No! I mean... I'm not ready to face him. I just... I don't want to sleep in the park. It's how my problems started... before you rescued me. Could you send Ororo or Dr. McCoy?"

"I think Dr. McCoy is still awake. I'll use Cerebo to send your coordinates to his GPS. So do me a favor, and for the next ten minutes, use your powers?"

"Alright. Thanks Professor."

"It's not a problem, Emery."

They hung up the phones.

'Hank, I'm going to need you to go get Emery.'

'Sure thing, Charles.'

The Professor went to the Cerebo room and sent her coordinates to Hank's jeep.

Emery sat on the swing rocking back and forth without moving her feet from the place she'd rooted them in. Between her hands she rolled a ball of plasma, working it from the size of a marble all the way up to the size of a baseball as slowly as she could. This allowed her to use her abilities and hopefully the Professor could pinpoint her location and someone could come get her. She knew she was about three hours away from the mansion. So, she knew she would have to wait for someone to show up.

When she tired of playing with the ball of plasma, she dissipated it back down into nothing. She began to swing on the swing. She was angry with herself for falling into her old habit of surrendering to Chet. He'd always been able to charm her, and now she'd let him charm her into kissing him again. Yes, she still loved him; he was her first love after all. However, she would never be able to move past the way he'd hurt her. The air flowing across her body and through her hair actually calmed her down. It was consistent and gentle… the way that Kurt had always been towards her.

She sighed.

Emery hoped Kurt would understand why things had gone the way they had. She'd needed to find out which guy that she actually loved. She'd needed to know which one meant more to her, and she'd found her answer. She didn't understand it; she had no idea how she could have thought Chet was Kurt. They were different people. Kurt was more innocent than Chet... not that being innocent made him gentler or kinder than Chet. Back when she was in a relationship with Chet, he'd been just as gentle and kind as Kurt. Granted, Chet had been innocent too once, but once he had his first taste of sex… well… he couldn't ever seem to get enough of it. That's when he lost his innocent charm; his charm developed into a sexy type of persuasion that she often found herself falling into. But, that wasn't going to happen anymore. Things were completely over between her and Chet; she'd achieved what she came for; she had eased her mind of her conflicting feelings. She would go back to the mansion and to Kurt.

Emery was a little afraid that he would reject her, when he learned what had happened tonight. She wasn't sure how Kurt would feel, or act, around her after this, but she knew he loved her and that was worth facing. She had no idea how to go about talking to him though. She wasn't very good at talking to people; she really didn't like people. But this was Kurt, and she loved him.

She felt her face flush. She did love him though...

It just took a run in with her ex-boyfriend to realize it.

An hour later, she sensed someone's presence approaching her. Thanks to what little time she'd spent at the Institute, she'd been able to increase her abilities, if only just a little bit. She looked towards the person, and even in the dark she could tell it was Chet. She immediately stood up.

"What are you doing here?"

"You always liked the park. I should've figured this was where you were headed, but I checked your house first anyway." He kept walking towards her.

"It's not my house anymore."

"That's what your parents said too."

"You talked to them?"

"Yeah, how else was I supposed to find out if you were there or not?" He stopped in front of her.

Emery took a step back. "Look, Chet. Things are over between us."

"Do you really feel that way?"

"Yes, I really do."

"But you kissed me."

"No, _you_ kissed _me._"

"You still kissed back."

"Force of habit. I was with you a long time. Now we're over."

"I'm not just going to give up on you because you think it's over between us. I've been waiting for you to come back home. Where have you been the last several months?"

"Not here."

"Obviously! Seriously Em, where were you? Where did you sleep? What did you eat? Did anyone hurt you?"

"No one _hurt_ me Chet! Just _you_!"

He winced. "I said I'm sorry."

"You and your preppy buddies tormented me all year. You expect me just to forget about that?!"

"No."

"You wanted _nothing_ to do with me the second I became a mutant."

"I panicked."

"And I wasn't panicking?"

"Em, I'm really sorry."

"Stop calling me that!"

"Why?"

"Because you're not my boyfriend anymore! Hell, you don't even know me that well anymore."

Chet moved to sit on one of the swings. "I came to ask you to forgive me. Can we just start over? I really do love you Emery."

Emery stared at him. What was he thinking? Didn't he understand that he was the only person she'd ever trusted? Didn't he understand that the pain from the things he'd said and done would never go away? Didn't he understand her feelings were no longer for him? They were for...

"Kurt."

"What?" Chet asked.

"He's the guy."

"The mutant?"

"Yes."

Chet sat there quiet for a while. Emery sat down on a swing. She watched him, ready to use her powers if she had to.

"He's a mutant."

"I've said that."

"Would you... consider giving me a chance if you knew that I am a mutant too?"

"You're lying."

"I'm not, and I can prove it." He stood up off the swing.

Dr. McCoy was about a half hour away from Emery's location when the Professor called the car. He pressed the button on the ceiling that would answer the call.

"We've got trouble," the Professor said. "Cerebo picked up a mutant where Emery is. I don't know this mutant's intentions towards Emery, but she definitely knows he's there."

"I believe the slang 'stepping on it' applies here. I will increase the speed of the car."

"I'm sure she can handle herself but be prepared to fight anyway."

"Will do." Beast pressed the hang-up button.


	35. Chapter 35: The Stand Off

Beast arrived at the playground indicated on his GPS sixteen minutes later. He'd nearly doubled his speed. It was a good thing that in this area there were no cops out at this time. The jeep came to an abrupt halt and Beast hurried out of the vehicle, leaving the car running.

"Emery!" he called, trying to figure out which direction to take off in. "Emery, where are you?"

'By the swings,' her words came floating into his mind.

Beast hurried over to the swings to find Emery and a boy, assumingly the new mutant the Professor had called him about, staring at each other. They were about six feet apart, their hands at their sides, and their eyes locked. Neither one of them was moving. Beast didn't know what to make of the situation. As far as he could tell, neither one of them was using their mutant powers. No, they seemed to be locked in a battle of will. Who would look away first and therefore give in to the other? It was a childish game, but unfortunately in their world, it could be the difference between losing and winning a battle, between living and dying.

Beast stood off to Emery's right side, between the swings and her, and a little behind. One of mankind's blind spots. He figured it would be best not to interrupt, but he needed to be close enough if she needed assistance.

"When did your powers appear?" Emery's voice broke the silence, but not their gaze.

"About a month after you disappeared."

"Why didn't you tell me you were a mutant when I was in your room earlier?"

"I wanted you to stay. I thought it would make you leave."

"What made you think that?"

"I thought maybe you would use it to get back at me, hurt me the way that I hurt you."

Beast came to the conclusion that they knew each other.

"I'm not that low, Chet."

Beast filed the name away in his memory for future usage.

"I realized. That's why I came after you."

"You should have stayed at home."

"I don't know how much longer I can do that."

"Why?"

"You saw my powers. I can't hide it forever."

"You seem to have excellent control over them."

Beast noted that Emery's words were cold, flat. Every last one of them sounded like she intended to push him away intended to hurt him.

"You know my parents will react the same way yours did when they find out."

"You haven't told them yet, so why would you now?"

"Because if being a mutant can give me a chance to be with you, I'll own up to it."

"You already did."

"Just to you."

"How did you figure out your powers anyway?"

"I ran into a less than friendly mutant, Avalanche or something. I had to defend myself."

"Avalanche doesn't ride solo, Chet."

"He was with a girl. She's probably the reason I'm still alive."

Katherine? Beast guessed. Did she know about this mutant all along?

"Did she see your powers?"

"No, she was trying to get him to stop using his the whole time. Her back was to me."

Ah, so she didn't know. Beast would really have to talk to her about hanging out with Lance. That boy really was no good.

Emery and Chet slipped into another bout of silence.

The Professor waited patiently, hooked up to Cerebo, for news from Dr. McCoy. It seemed that both Emery's and this new mutant's powers were both offline. However, there had been no news for far too long, and he was starting to worry. It was unlike Dr. McCoy not to update him. There must be something going on. Unfortunately, at this time of night, almost everyone was asleep, and no one would be able to get there fast enough. He would just have to trust Emery and Dr. McCoy to handle themselves.

Emery could sense it. Not with her extra mind capabilities, no, just with her intuition. If she moved, Chet would not hesitate to use his powers against her. She should have guessed that his powers would be on par with hers; they grew up together after all. Up until a year ago, all of their experiences were the same. But they were different people. Their powers were different. She also should have known that his powers would be the ones that she couldn't fight against. He'd always been her weakness; it stood to reason that his powers were her weakness too. And maybe they were. She wasn't sure if she could fight him. Because of what he had meant to her, or because of his powers, it really made no difference. She was not confident she would be able to win a fight with Chet. She'd used her powers a lot today. Mind reading and talking with her mind were very low on energy usage. But manipulating someone's mind, using telepathic force, and working with her plasma: those took a toll. Emery knew she would need a good night's rest before her powers would be fully loaded again.

Beast sighed. This had gone on for far too long. The Professor would be able to get into this boy's brain. He'd take them back to the mansion.

"If I may interrupt," Beast started. When nothing bad happened he continued: "If my ears do not betray me, you are a mutant, are you not?"

"I am," Chet responded.

"Then if you want, return with Emery and I to Xavier's Institute for the Gifted. The Professor will explain everything about the Institute himself; however it is a respite for us mutants."

"That sounds great actually. Do I need to pack?"

Chet's eyes never left Emery's as he spoke to Dr. McCoy.

"If the Professor agrees to take you in as a student, then we can come back for your things."

"If he agrees?"

"There is a sort of entrance exam."

"Exam?"

"Do not worry. It is nothing too complicated."

Chet broke eye contact with Emery and looked at Dr. McCoy. He smiled. "Let's go then."

Around 3:30 am, the three of them arrived at the Institute. Beast had called the Professor from the car and told him that he was bringing Chet back to the mansion. The Professor nodded and then decided to take a three hour nap instead of wait for them to arrive. He would need his sleep and his strength.

Emery had refused to talk. She had turned the radio on and ignored Chet, in the backseat, the whole ride. The moment the car parked, she was out of the car, the passenger door slamming behind her, and walking into the mansion. She was not thrilled about Chet being here. She had enough problems getting people to like her, not that she wanted them to, without an ex-boyfriend trying to un-ex himself. Emery met the Professor in the entryway and sent him a mental message: 'If Chet stays, put him as far away from my room as you can.' The Professor nodded his head in acknowledgement.

Emery walked upstairs until she reached her room. She cast a sidelong glance in the direction of Kurt's room and then disappeared through her doorway, quietly closing the door behind her. She had a lot to think about. Her whole purpose of going to see Chet was to leave the past behind her. If she couldn't leave it behind her, how was she supposed to move on? What was she supposed to do now that Chet might be staying in the same house as her? She didn't think the Professor would turn anyone away. She knew Chet would be here.

His powers unnerved her. Couldn't he have just stayed the powerless ex in her past? Couldn't he just be normal? It would have kept him out of her life. She could have moved on. Maybe fate saw this as a way to punish him for betraying her, but it was a punishment for her too.

Emery locked her bedroom door, stripped down to her undergarments, and collapsed on the bed. She buried her face into her pillow and the tears started to fall. She was so confused. And things would just get worse between her and Kurt now that Chet was here. Why? Why had she felt such a need to go push the past out now? She wished she had just gone home with Kurt and let him work his way into her defense bubble instead. Now… she didn't know what was going to happen.

She cried herself to sleep.


	36. Chapter 36: Tension

Around nine o'clock the next morning, the Professor received a knock on his office door.

"Come in," he called. Kurt came in, closing the door behind him gently.

"You vonted to see me Professor?"

"Indeed. Have a seat," he gestured to one of the chairs in front of his desk. When Kurt took a seat, he continued. "Late last night Emery returned home."

"Sie did?!" Kurt stood up.

"Please sit down, Kurt." Kurt followed the Professor's instruction. "You're aware that she had returned to her hometown to see someone by the name of Chet."

"Ja," Kurt grunted and sat back against the seat, his arms falling onto the armrests.

"Well she found him."

Kurt looked to his left, avoiding eye contact even though he knew the Professor could read his mind if the Professor chose.

"But she came back," his tone was hopeful.

"And with her came the boy Chet."

"Vhy vould he come here?"

"It seems that Chet has developed a mutation of his own."

"He ist a mutant? Glaube ist nicht."

"He is. However, according to Dr. McCoy, Emery seems to be the only one, besides Chet himself that knows of Chet's abilities. I wanted to talk to you before you ran into her or Chet to tell you to be careful."

"Careful? I am nicht afraid of him."

"And that is why I am worried. I am letting him stay here, but since they arrived home around three this morning, I did not question Chet. He is aware that in order to stay here he must have mutant abilities. Which Cerebo and Emery can attest to the validity of that. However, Dr. McCoy tells me that there was a lot of tension between the two, before he showed up and in the car on the ride home. Emery requested that Chet's room be placed as far away from hers as possible."

"Gut."

"If Chet wishes to stay, I am not going to tell him he can't. As a mutant he has the right to be here if he should choose."

Kurt made a 'hmph' sound.

"I understand things are a little tense between you and Emery right now, and I am aware that Chet being here has the potential to cause problems."

"Ja, it might."

There came a knock on the door.

"Yes?" the Professor called.

The door opened and Chet's voice came floating in. "Hello Professor, you said you wanted to talk to me today? I came as soon as I got directions."

"Ah, Chet. I wasn't expecting you so early. Kurt, would you excuse us?"

"Natürlich, Professor," Kurt said flatly, standing up and turning towards the door.

"Kurt? You're Kurt?" Chet asked. Their eyes met, assessing one another.

"Ja, und you're Chet."

Chet looked at the blue daemon in front of him: tail and all. What did Emery see in him? He was blue. And fuzzy. He could understand that this guy had a tail like her, but besides that he didn't get it. Kurt was shorter than him: not by much. Maybe a few inches. He stood at six feet even. At least he looked normal. Emery's ears and tail were adorable once you got over the shock of them being real. Role play, for real. And with that thought his mind drifted into the gutter. He shuddered mentally at the thought of Emery having sex with this daemon of a guy. Why would she even want to? Hopefully if things went well, he could talk her out of being with this guy and back to being with him.

Kurt found the guy before him normal. This guy could pass as human: no mutant genes. Decent looking, but he was a guy, how was he supposed to know what girls found attractive? Emery found Chet attractive, his mind taunted him. Marcus had told him, and Emery had confirmed that Emery and Chet had... had sex together. Kurt felt his heart twang. Kurt understood that it had happened before Emery had met him, but that didn't mean it didn't haunt him a little. It was worse now that Chet was actually going to be here. Kurt wondered what had happened between Chet and Emery before Herr McCoy had brought them home. The fact that Herr McCoy had told the Professor that there had been a lot of tension between the two meant nothing of that sort had happened. Right? He wasn't sure, and he wasn't sure he wanted to find out either.

He stepped around Chet and closed the door behind him.

Kurt had to know. Maybe he was a glutton for punishment, but he had to know what happened between Emery and Chet last night. He made his way up to Emery's room, walking to give himself time to think about how to phrase his words when he asked Emery about last night. She was dangerous. Everyone at the Institute knew that. He certainly stood no chance against her should she turn against him. He accepted the fact that if Emery didn't want to tell him what happened, then he probably wasn't going to get the answer from her. And he didn't trust Chet to tell him the truth.

As far as Kurt knew, Chet had hurt Emery back in high school. Chet didn't care about Emery. Chet was just unfortunate enough to be a mutant. He sighed. No, from the way everyone was acting Chet still liked Emery, and his mutation was going to be his white flag.

Kurt stopped outside Emery's bedroom and knocked on the door. She didn't answer and she didn't open it. He knocked again.

"Emery, it's Kurt," he called through the door.

Still no answer. He tried the doorknob and found it locked. Well at least she was inside. Now he faced the issue: should he teleport inside or leave her alone? Something must have happened last night. Something not good if Emery was locking herself away from the world. 'Bitte, not sex. Bitte, not sex,' Kurt thought to himself as he teleported into her room. He only moved two feet forward, just far enough into her room to be on the other side of her locked door.

His foot landed on something. He looked down and found a piece of cloth. Kurt picked it up to look at it. It was... it was a shirt, the one that she'd been wearing when she'd left Marcus' cabin yesterday. His gaze drifted upwards. There were her pants. And there she was, lying on her bed, partially curled, partially on her stomach, with her face turned away from him. Kurt blushed. She was only in her undergarments. He knew he should leave and let her sleep, but he quickly walked over to the bed and snatched up one of the blankets. He draped it over her body. Sitting down on the edge of her bed, Kurt reached out a hand and shook her shoulder.

"Emery, wake up," Kurt said softly.

"Hmm?" she moaned groggily, slowly waking up.

"Em, wake up," he said a little louder.

She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at him. Upon seeing Kurt's face, she sat up quickly. Her arms wrapped around his neck, her torso pressed flush against his, and her face buried into his neck.

"Kurt," she murmured.

"I think ve need to talk, Em," Kurt said blushing, keeping his hands awkwardly at his sides.

She pulled away, a sad look on her face. Kurt's eyes drifted down to her bra, and then he quickly looked away.

"But you should get dressed first," he said.

Emery looked down, noticing she wasn't wearing anything and a blush began to spread on her face as well. She nodded in agreement.


End file.
